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TABERNACLE SHADOWS 



OR 



REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 



BY 

O. H. WALLACE 

Pastor of the First Baptist Church 
Corry, Pa. 



'The example and shadow of heavenly things."— Heb, 8:5$ 



The Warren Press 

160 Warren Street, Boston 

1912 






Copyrighted 

1912 

By O. H. WALLACE 



©CU332035 



:> 



Unto Him 
whom God hath highly exalted, 
and given a name which is above every name, 

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, 
THE SAVIOUR, 

who was despised and rejected of men, 

but beloved of the father ; 

who died for our sins, 

has risen, and is enthroned at the right hand of god, 

until the morning dawns, and the 

sahdows flee away 

when he shall come again to take hls throne; 

Unto Him, 

by one who trusts hls atoning death, 

among men acknowledges hlm as master, 

and is expectantly waiting for hls coming again, 

this lowly tribute 

is reverently dedicated. 



PREFACE. 



These lectures were originally prepared as brief talks for 
mid-week prayer and conference meetings in the church of 
which the author was then the pastor. That might have 
been the end of them, if a kind and truth-loving people had 
not insisted upon hearing more upon the subject, even offer- 
ing to bear the expense of making suitable illustrations upon 
canvas hangings to use with the studies, if they could be con- 
tinued, — illustrations which have rendered excellent service 
many times during the subsequent years. Perhaps there 
will be something of compensation in this to the beloved 
Church which made their possession and use possible. The il- 
lustrations in the book are made from those hangings. Thus 
encouraged by the Church, the preparation of the lectures be- 
gan, and their delivery followed on successive Sunday even- 
ings to large audiences. They have been given several times 
since in the course of regular pastoral work, also many times 
in other churches and before theological students, by invita- 
tion from brother pastors and teachers. It is always a delight 
to render this service, for usually the hearers are appreciative; 
then, this part of God's revelation is never retraversed with- 
out giving to the lecturer a stronger conviction that these 
teachings are true, and this brings with it a happy and abid- 
ing reassurance in the finished work of our blessed Lord, a 
work of which the Tabernacle shadows were divinely in- 
spired unfoldings. 

This book comes in response to a call. Wherever the lec- 
tures have been given, many of the hearers have expressed a 
wish that they might have them in printed form. We have 
at last surrendered to this oft repeated request. Our only 
desire is that the Master, in whose Name and for whose glory 



VI PREFACE 

the work has been undertaken, will bless the book, and make 
it a ministry of grace and helpfulness to all who read its 
pages. If the love and faith of its readers shail be strength- 
ened and confirmed in their reading, as has the writer's in his 
writing, his work shall be abundantly rewarded. 

Originality in this line of Bible study and interpretation is 
disclaimed, and we hasten to make greatful acknowledge- 
ment that from many sources we have gathered valuable aid 
and suggestion. We are glad to make especial mention of Prof. 
W. G. Moorehead's Studies in Mosaic Institutions, Rev. F. H. 
White's Christ in the Tabernacle, from which we were greatly 
aided in securing our illustrations, Rev. C. I. Scofield, D. D., in 
his Bible notes, and last but not least, Rev. A. J.Gordon, D. D., 
of blessed memory, whose Scriptural and spiritual teachings 
did so much to bring us to a larger knowledge of Christ as He 
is revealed in the typical and prophetic portions of the Bible. 
Since the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote upon 
the Tabernacle, showing it to be a typical setting forth of 
Jesus in His great redemptive work, there have been many 
devout and scholarly writers upon this subject. So far as 
possible, we have "entered into their labors," and have 
found great delight in gathering truth's flashing gems which 
they have brought forth from the deep mines of Biblical 
study and research. It is honor enough for us, to be en- 
trusted with these priceless gems, and to pass them on to others 
who, perhaps, see and enjoy them for the first time. If the 
Lord has helped us to put some old truths in new settings, or, 
to identify some New Testament truths as foreshadowed in 
the Tabernacle and its service, we are glad to make humble 
but thankful acknowledgment to Him, who in unspeakable 
condescension uses men in the unfolding of His precious truth. 

That the book may be used in some humble way in reveal- 
ing Jesus as Redeemer, and in helping believers to appre- 
hend what they really have in their divine Lord, and by so 
doing, become better prepared for service here, and for the 
glory when He comes, is the earnest desire and prayer of the 

author. 

O. H. Wallace. 

First Baptist Study, Corry, Pa., 
May 15, 1912. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 
I 

The Court of the Tabernacle 9 



II 

The Golden Framework of God's Dwelling-Place . 33 

III 
The Holy Place in the Tent of Meeting . . . 63 

IV 

The Throne-Room of Jehovah . . ... 87 

V 
Israel's High Priest .113 

VI 
The Common Priests 143 

VII 
The Sacrificial Offerings of Israel .... 165 



FIRST LECTURE. 



THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE. 

I. The Court with its Pillars and Curtains. 
II. The Brazen Altar in the Court. 
III. The Laver before the Door of the Tabernacle. 



THE 
COURT OF THE TABERNACLE. 

" Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among 
them." — Ex. 25: 8. 

Soon after the exodus from Egypt, Moses, 
the servant of God, was summoned to appear 
before the Lord in a mountain of Sinai, to re- 
ceive, upon tablets of stone, "a law, and com- 
mandments," — presumably those which God 
had already orally delivered to the people 
through this same honored servant. Moses tar- 
ried in the mountain with God forty days, and 
during this time of exalted fellowship, among 
other instructions concerning his work, he re- 
ceived his commission to build the Tabernacle, a 
sanctuary for Jehovah, that He might dwell 
among His people, Israel. The plan of this 
building and its furnishings, which were to be 
upon a most splendid and expensive scale, was 
revealed to Moses at this time; in just what way 



12 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

we are not told, but the words, "See, saith He, 
that thou make all things according to the pat- 
tern showed to thee in the mount," would sug- 
gest to us that he had received a very full and 
detailed vision of this wonderful structure and 
all of its appointments. 

We are entering upon these studies of the Tab- 
ernacle, its furniture, sacrifices, ritual, and priests, 
not because we have an especial fondness for 
Hebrew antiquities, but because we recognize in 
this old Jewish institution, and all that was incor- 
porated with it, divine foreshadowings of " good 
things to come." We are persuaded that there 
are the best of reasons for believing that God, in 
arranging this ancient building, with its priestly 
ministries and animal sacrifices, was putting 
upon the stage of the centuries which preceeded 
the advent of His only begotten and well be- 
loved Son, a drama, which accurately foreshad- 
owed the unspeakably precious redemption that 
should be secured for a race and world sold 
under sin and hopelessly ruined,— a redemption 
wrought out by our Lord Jesus Christ through 
His life in the flesh, His death on the cross, and 
His priestly intercessions in the holy places not 
made with hands. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 13 

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in 
referring to the ancient sanctuary and its cere- 
monies, used several words which make it very 
certain that he recognized them as illustrative 
institutions given to serve " the time then pres- 
ent," and to help the worshipers to comprehend 
and by faith appropriate God's promise to pro- 
vide an offering that should take away the sin of 
the world. Let me bring to your attention a few 
of these very significant words. 

"PATTERNS." 

In contemplating the blood-sprinkled altars, 
the ark of the covenant, and other articles within 
the sacred inclosure, the author of this epistle 
wrote these words: "Almost all things are by 
the law purged with blood; ... it was therefore 
necessary that the patterns of things in the 
heavens should be purified with these ; but the 
heavenly things themselves with better sacri- 
fices than these" (Heb. 9: 22, 23). The word 
rendered " patterns " (vTrohe^ixara) in this pas- 
sage, indicates that the earthly and blood- 
sprinkled things were delineations, exhibitions, 
copies of glorious and heavenly realities. The 
word is rendered " copies " in the Revision. 



14 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

Another of these words is 

"FIGURES." 

We are told that " Christ is not entered into 
the holy places made with hands, which are the 
figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now 
to appear in the presence of God for us " (Heb. 
9: 24). Furthermore, speaking of the second 
room in the Tabernacle, into which the high 
priest entered only once each year, the writer 
calls it a "figure." " The Holy Spirit this signi- 
fying, that the way into the holiest of all was 
not yet made manifest, while as the first taber- 
nacle was yet standing: which is a figure 
(Trapapokr)— parable) for the time then pres- 
ent" (Heb. 9: 8, 9). The Tabernacle, then, 
according to this, was a structural and enacted 
parable,— God using curtains, rooms, altars, 
priests, and offerings to reveal and illustrate 
His purpose and promise to provide redemption 
for men. 

Next we have a pair of words, 

"EXAMPLE AND SHADOW." 

We are not left in uncertainty as to the 
writer's object in using these words. He says, 
"There are priests that offer gifts according 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 15 

to the law: who serve unto the example and 
shadow of heavenly things" (Heb. 8: 4, 5). 
The Aaronic priesthood, ministering through 
many centuries in the Court and Holy Places, 
was a divinely instituted example and shadow 
of our Great High Priest, Christ Jesus, minister 
of the " true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, 
and not man." Thus, it seems very certain 
that the writers of the New Testament recog- 
nized in the Tabernacle, foreshadowings of 
Christ's redeeming and intercessory work for 
mankind. Indeed, it may be confidently affirmed 
that nowhere else in the Old Testament, as 
much as in this divinely appointed sanctuary 
with its continual service and sacrificial offer- 
ings, have we such a luminous and soul-assur- 
ing exposition of that profound statement of 
New Testament doctrine, " Him who knew no 
sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we 
might become the righteousness of God in 
Him" (2 Cor. 5: 21, R. V.). Beloved, I believe 
in the Tabernacle as a most wonderful unfold- 
ing of Gospel truth ! A believing and prayer- 
ful study of these inspired patterns will greatly 
aid any person, who is willing to thus apply 
himself, in gaining a comprehensive under- 



16 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

standing of the atonement. If more of our 
preachers and teachers whose duty it is to 
make men acquainted with "Christ and Him 
crucified, ,, would only go with Aaron and his 
priestly sons through one complete round of 
their typical service, they would return to their 
pulpits and class-rooms to set forth a plan of 
redemption that would possess the high merit 
of being scriptural, easily comprehended, and 
eminently spiritual. There would be less 
preaching of salvation by character, and more 
preaching of Jesus who died for our sins and 
was raised again for our justification. 

If we are to pursue this series of studies 
with the largest measure of helpfulness to our- 
selves, we must, in the very beginning, get a 
clear understanding of the fundamental teach- 
ings of this institution,— the primary truths 
around which all of its other teachings are 
grouped. Such are the following: 

1. The Tabernacle was God's dwelling-place 
among His chosen and beloved people, and the 
only place on earth where Deity could be 
localized. 

God had called Israel out of Egypt that they 
might be unto Him a chosen and peculiar peo- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 17 

pie. Beneath His sovereign protection and care, 
they were to live in intimate and constant fel- 
lowship with Himself. They had left Egypt 
with the sincere affirmation upon their lips 
that they were going out to serve the Lord 
their God. These were their high hopes and 
ideals when they left the land of the Pharaohs, 
and the scenes of their servitude and affliction. 
But God was holy and they were sinful, and at 
Sinai they learned that He was intolerant of 
sin and could not look upon it with any degree 
of allowance. When His holy presence was 
manifested amid the lightnings and thunder- 
ings upon the mount of fire, they were filled 
with fear, and " removed, and stood afar off. 
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, 
and we will hear: but let not God speak with 
us, lest we die " (Ex. 20 : 18, 19). The holiness, 
of God and the sinfulness of the people seemed 
to make it impossible for God to dwell among 
them. Impossible? No, not if God's unfath- 
omable love and grace can reach the depths of 
the mighty problem and make it possible. Here 
is the plan of Divine procedure: "The Lord 
spake unto Moses, saying, . . . Let them make me 
a sanctuary ; that I may dwell among them." In 



18 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

the Tabernacle God purposed to give an exhibi- 
tion of His abounding grace, and to reveal unto 
sinful and rebellious men how it is that He can 
be just and the justifier of the ungodly. It was 
here, enthroned upon His mercy-seat, that God 
extended His sceptre of pardon to a sinful nation, 
showing them that " where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound." Thus it was, by the use 
of this tent erected under the frowning shadow 
of Mount Sinai, that Jehovah was seeking to aid 
the faith of His people to anticipate the coming 
of the One whose name was to be " Emmanuel, 
which being interpreted is, GOD with us." 

2. It was from the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of 
Holies that God communicated directly with 
His people. 

Before the Tabernacle was built, God prom- 
ised Moses that this should be one of the 
exalted privileges that His servants should enjoy 
in this sanctuary. He said, "I will meet with 
thee, and will commune with thee from above 
the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim 
which are upon the ark of the testimony" (Ex. 
25: 22). And after the building was erected, 
and worship inaugurated therein, the following 
was written as a matter of history: "When 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 19 

Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak 
with Him, then he heard the Voice speaking 
unto him from above the mercy-seat that was 
upon the ark of the testimony, from between 
the two cherubim" (Num. 7: 89, R. V.). How 
different was this from the voice that was heard 
amid the clouds upon Mount Sinai ! Then light- 
nings and thunderings of judgment mingled 
with the voice, and the people, filled with fear, 
" removed, and stood afar off." Now when God 
speaks with them from the mercy-seat, His voice 
is clothed in tones of pardon and love, and the 
people draw nigh in confident and affectionate 
worship, waiting outside the Court until God's 
last and benedictory word has been spoken. 
None of the sovereign authority which dictated, 
and issued with Jehovah's utterances from Sinai 
has been relinquished, but now He speaks from 
a blood-sprinkled throne where " mercy and truth 
are met together," and where "righteousness 
and peace have kissed each other " (Ps. 85: 10). 
Thus it was that God communicated with His 
people in olden times, and in so doing, foreshad- 
owed these last days in which God hath spoken 
unto us by His Son (Heb. 1 : 1, 2). 



20 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

3. The Entrances to the Court and Holy 
Apartments of the Tabernacle, revealed a Way 
into the presence of God. 

There was a Gate, a Door, and a Veil. The 
gate was at the eastward end of the Court, and 
was the place where the worshiper turned his 
back to the east * and naturalism, and began his 
journey along the way of Divine Appointment, 
and toward God,— the way that led unto that 
which was perfect in the Holy of Holies. The 
door was at the entrance of the Tabernacle tent, 
and it admitted into the Holy Place where there 
was food, light, and fellowship with God. The 
veil, one of the most significant parts of the 
sacred structure, and, as we shall see later on, 
one concerning the typical meaning of which 
we are not left to guess, hung between the Holy 
Place and the Holy of Holies where God's pres- 
ence was manifested. The gate, the door, and 
the veil are undoubtedly identical in their typi- 
cal significance, and together they reveal Jesus 
as the way to God. I presume there are few 
who have given this subject careful considera- 
tion, who will question that our Lord had these 



'The eastward posture is a distinguishing mark of religions 
of pagan and semi-pagan origin. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 21 

in mind when he said to Thomas, " I am the way, 
the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto 
the Father, but by me" (John 14: 6). We are 
indebted to the writer of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews for still further light upon this sub- 
ject. He says: "Having therefore, brethren, 
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood 
of Jesus, by a new and living way, which 
He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, 
that is to say, His flesh" (Heb. 10: 19, 20). 
Jesus is the " new and living way" that was 
foreshadowed by the old blood-stained way of 
the Tabernacle. 

As we progress with these studies, you will 
be impressed with the remarkable fact that 
many New Testament words and expressions 
were cast in the mold of Tabernacle phrase- 
ology, and particularly is this true of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews. It is only because we are so far 
removed from that old institution that we fail to 
recognize its influence in New Testament expres 
sion. 

" The New Testament in the Old is concealed ; 
The Old Testament in the New is revealed." 

— Augustine. 



22 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

We are now prepared to give our attention 
more directly to that part of the Tabernacle 
which has been assigned for our study at this 
time, namely, the Court and its Furnishings. 

I. The Court With Its Pillars and 
Curtains. 

(Ex.27: 9-19.) 

An important feature of God's dwelling-place 
was the Court that surrounded it. This enclo- 
sure, formed by pillars of wood standing in 
sockets of brass, extended in length, east and 
west, one hundred cubits, and in breadth, north 
and south, fifty cubits. It is impossible, per- 
haps, to determine the exact English equivalent 
of the Hebrew cubit, but it was probably not 
far from eighteen inches in length. From these 
pillars, by means of silver hooks and fillets, were 
suspended hangings of fine twined linen. These 
hangings of white linen suggest,— 

1. That God dwells in a habitation of holiness. 
" Holiness to the Lord " was written upon every 
thread of those walls of white linen. They 
proclaimed in unmistakable terms to all who 
approached with the purpose to enter into God's 
holy presence, that they must first enter into a 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 23 

life of " holiness, without which no man shall 
see the Lord " (Heb. 12 : 14) . " Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God." 

2. The white curtains also suggest that all of 
God's transactions with men are inside the lim- 
its of righteousnes. Outside the Court there was 
neither Altar nor Laver, and these stood for 
great and essential experiences in the regenera- 
tion of earth-born souls, without which there 
could be no fellowship with God. But does not 
God sit upon a throne of mercy, and is it not 
His great delight to be gracious unto the chil- 
dren of men ? Yes, but He does not forget that 
there are limitations of righteousness beyond 
which He can never go, no, not if it were to 
save the whole universe from moral and physi- 
cal ruin. He must remain, in Himself, just, if 
He is to be the justifier of sinful men who believe 
in Jesus (Rom. 3: 26). Redemption not only 
displays God's mercy and grace, but it also 
observes the limitations which vindicate His 
righteousness. Mercy and grace have sent 
forth their invitation, "Come into His Courts,' ' 
and its extension is as unlimited as the race of 
mankind, but with this invitation extended, 
God's mercy and grace can only wait until men 



24 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

respond. The parable of the prodigal son repre- 
sents the father as waiting until the lost son 
returned to his home. Jesus' saddest lament 
was, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might 
have life" (John 5: 40). 

The Court was entered by a broad Gate at the 
eastward end. In the hangings of the Court, 
representing the inflexible righteousness de- 
manded by the law, and by which, therefore, all 
men are excluded, because all men are sinners 
in the sight of the law, no colors are introduced. 
But the gate, like the veil, represented Christ, 
and so the colors of the veil reappeared in the 
gate. God's mercy has provided at tremendous 
cost, a gate through which "whosoever will," 
may enter and appropriate all that His great 
love has prepared for those who believe in 
Jesus. 

There was but one gate by which to enter the 
Court, but it was twenty cubits wide and five 
cubits high ; surely one gate, so spacious, was 
enough to accommodate all who might really 
desire to enter. There may have been those 
who preferred to remain on the outside and 
complain because the gate was not in the right 
place, or because it was too wide or too narrow, 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 25 

or because there was not another gate at the 
westward end of the Court ; their complainings, 
however, were all unreasonable, and altogether 
unheeded by Him who sat upon the mercy-seat, 
and in love had opened the one sufficient way of 
approach to Himself. To have forced an entrance 
in some other way would have incurred the 
Divine disapproval. Jesus may have had this 
truth in mind when He said, " Verily, I say unto 
you, he that entereth not by the door . . . but 
climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief 

and a robber I am the door : by me if any man 

enter in he shall be saved " (John 10 : 1, 9) . 

II. The Brazen Altar in the Court. 

(Ex. 27: 1-9.) 

The Brazen Altar, or the Altar of Burnt-Offer- 
ing, was perhaps the most conspicuous feature 
of Israel's ancient religious system. It was 
made of wood and overlaid with heavy plates of 
brass; hence its name. All offerings burnt 
within the Court were offered upon this Altar. 
The position of this stern looking piece of furni- 
ture was very suggestive; it stood in the Court, 
directly in the way of one passing from the gate 



26 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

to the door of the Tabernacle. In Israel, all 
worshipers who drew nigh unto God, whether 
individuals, as in the case of priests, or the con- 
gregation in its corporate capacity, and repre- 
sented by a priest, were required to come by the 
way of the Brazen Altar. Whoever came along 
this way must be halted at the Altar by a priest, 
who, as a representative of the throne of right- 
eous judgment, and with unsheathed sword in 
hand, demanded the immediate judgment of his 
sin. The worshiper may not advance another 
step until this serious question which separates 
men from God has been satisfactorily settled. 
But God's broken law demanded life. Alas! 
then, who could satisfy the law's awful demands 
and continue his journey toward the Holy of 
Holies where the Divine Presence was mani- 
fested? He satisfied the law's demands, and 
lived to continue his journey, who had heard 
aright God's invitation, " Bring an offering, and 
come into His courts," and had come to the Altar 
with an animal substitute. Guided by the ritual 
of the sanctuary, the offerer laid his hand upon 
the head of his offering, and, probably, made a 
full confession of his sin. That act was to sig- 
nify that the sinner's guilt was transferred to 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 27 

the guiltless beast, thus constituting it the guilty 
one, and the bearer of his sin. The laying on of 
the offerer's hand signified his acceptance of, 
and identification with, his offering. The offerer 
was by this act saying, " This animal is now my 
sinful self, and its life henceforth is my forfeited 
life." It was then slain as a sin-offering at the 
Brazen Altar to make atonement for the offerer. 
The sin-offerings had in view the legal satisfac- 
tion and vindication of God's perfect but out- 
raged law, and as shadows they were expiatory, 
substitutional, and efficacious until the true sin- 
offering came. 

It does not require great spiritual and scrip- 
tural knowledge to see all of these shadows ful- 
filled in our Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased the 
Father to lay our burden of iniquity upon Him ; 
He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; 
He suffered, the Just for the unjust ; the sin- 
less Son of God was made sin for us, that we 
might become the righteousness of God in Him 
(2 Cor. 5: 21). "The profound sacrificial lan- 
guage of the Old Testament is carried bodily 
over into the New Testament and applied to the 
Lamb of God. All our iniquity is charged to 
Him, and all the wrath due our iniquity is dis- 



28 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

charged upon Him." 1 The sword of justice 
which hung over our guilty heads, fell upon 
Him, and under its retributive stroke He was 
laid in death. In Christ our sins have been 
judged, punished, and borne away into the 
realm of eternal forgetfulness. This is the 
legal side of redemption, and there can be no 
salvation without it. Whoever comes to God, 
must come by the way of Calvary's cross, the 
blood-sprinkled way. Morality, kind deeds, gen- 
erous gifts, and, indeed, devout attendance upon 
religious ceremonials and observances can never 
admit to the true heavenly sanctuary, those who 
reject, or personally neglect to identify them- 
selves with God's true sin-offering, Christ Jesus. 
Remember that it is written, "Without shed- 
ding of blood there is no remission," and that 

"THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, GOD'S SON, 
CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN." 

" Not all the blood of beasts, 
On Jewish altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
Or wash away the stain. 

" But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 
Takes all our sins away, — 
A sacrifice of nobler name, 
And richer blood than they. 



Morehead. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 29 

My faith would lay her hand 

On that dear head of Thine, 
While like a penitent I stand, 

And there confess my sin." 



III. The Laver Before the Door of the 
Tabernacle. 

(Ex. 30: 17-21.) 

The Laver was the second of the two impor- 
tant articles of furniture in the Court of the Tab- 
ernacle, and it was placed directly between 
the Brazen Altar and the door admitting into the 
Holy Place. Concerning its shape and size, the 
Scriptures give us little or no information. It 
was made from the brass mirrors contributed 
by the devout women who ministered at the 
entrance of the tent of meeting (Ex. 38 : 8, R. V.). 
This circumstance becomes very interesting and 
suggestive to us when we remember that the 
Laver had a typical significance. Mirrors are 
used to show us ourselves, our faces, and what- 
ever of defilement may be thereon. But the 
Laver, being supplied with water, could do more 
than reveal uncleanness,— it could wash it away. 
Whatever the typical significance of this sacred 
vessel, it must be found in connection with the 
service which it rendered in the Court of the Tab- 



30 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ernacle, where it was placed by Divine appoint- 
ment. There were two washings at the Laver — 
1. The washing at Consecration (Ex. 29: 4). 
This was a once-for-always ceremonial washing 
which was administered to priests when they 
were inducted into office. It undoubtedly pre- 
figured the " washing of regeneration " to which 
Saint Paul refers in Titus 3 : 5, where he says, 
" Not by works of righteousness which we have 
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, 
by the washing of regeneration, and the renew- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. " At the Altar sin 
was judged, punished, and legally put away; 
at the Laver uncleanness was judged and 
actually put away by nature's great cleanser- 
water. Such were the kindergarten methods 
which God employed to reveal the great truths 
of redemption to the faith of His ancient people, 
Israel. We draw nigh to God through that of 
which both the Altar and Laver were only 
imperfect shadows, namely, the atoning work 
of Jesus and the regenerating power of the 
Holy Spirit. By the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, 
our sins have been legally canceled and we 
declared to be just,— " Being justified freely by 
his grace through the redemption that is in 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 31 

Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3: 24). This is wholly 
legal, and because of this legal adjustment of 
our standing, we are entitled to receive, by a 
further display of God's grace, the renewing of 
the Holy Spirit by which we are created anew in 
righteousness and true holiness. This is the 
new birth, and its importance was emphasized 
by our Lord, when He said to Nicodemus, 
"Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God" (John 3: 5). 

2. The continual washing (Ex. 30: 17-21). 
The priests were required to always wash their 
hands and their feet before entering the Holy 
Place, or ministering at the Altar of Burnt-Offer- 
ing. Their fellowship and continued ministry 
depended upon their putting away any defile- 
ment which might have been contracted in their 
work or walk. Here is prefigured our Lord's abid- 
ing interest in the continual spiritual purity of 
His own beloved followers. As He prayed for 
His disciples while He was with them, " I pray 
not that thou shouldest take them out of the 
world, but that thou shouldest keep them Jrom 
the evil" so He is still praying for all who are truly 
His, that they may be kept from the defilement 



32 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

of this wicked world. Such defilement may not 
annul our sonship, but it does interrupt our fel- 
lowship and hinder our ministry. But Christ is 
our Laver for continual washing. " If any man 
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous " (1 John 2:1). "He is able 
also to save them to the uttermost that come 
unto God by Him, seeing he ever liveth to 
make intercession for them" (Heb. 7: 25). Be- 
fore our blessed Lord left His disciples and the 
earth, He took their feet in His kindly hands and 
bathed away the fever and dust of a wearisome 
journey. In this loving ministry He gave assur- 
ance to all who shall believe in Him to the end 
of the age, that although He has departed into 
the heavens, He will not be unmindful of " His 
own who are in the world," but will, if they will 
but trust Him for His ministry of "continual 
washing,"keepthem clean from all the defilement 
of their earthly work and walk, and so they shall 
be " meet for the Master's use " here, and ready, 
" without spot, or wrinkle," to join Him in the 
glory when He comes. 

" I am coming, Lord ! 
Coming now to Thee ! 
Wash me, cleanse me in Thy blood 
That flowed on Calvary " 



SECOND LECTURE. 



THE GOLDEN FRAMEWORK OF GOD'S 
DWELLING-PLACE. 

/. The Boards of the Tabernacle. 
II. The Foundation of the Boards. 

III. The Bars for Stability and Security. 

IV. The Coverings of the Tabernacle. 



THE 

GOLDEN FRAMEWORK OF GOD'S 
DWELLING-PLACE. 

" Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, 
but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of 
God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 
in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto 
an holy temple in the Lord : in whom ye also are builded to- 
gether for an habitation of God through the Spirit"— Eph. 2 : 
19-22. 

God's primary and supreme purpose in the 
Tabernacle was to reveal His Son, our Lord 
Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer and Saviour of 
men. In making such a revelation of Him, we 
should expect the Church to be brought into 
view, and when we come to a careful study of 
these types and shadows, our expectation is 
realized,— the Church was foreshadowed in the 
Tabernacle, 



36 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

It seems to us impossible to make a revelation 
of Jesus as Redeemer and Saviour, without pic- 
turing the Redeemed in close and dependent 
relationship with Him. What would you think 
of a picture of the Good Shepherd with the lost 
sheep left out? You would realize the omission 
at once; it would not be a picture of the Good 
Shepherd. The two must be shown together for 
the sake of identification ; each reveals and in- 
terprets the other. The climax of that beautiful 
story of Jesus is reached, when the shepherd, 
after long and anxious search amid the darkness 
and perils of the desert, finds his sheep, and lift- 
ing it to his strong shoulders, starts on his 
homeward journey, rejoicing. The bewildered 
and wearied sheep, perhaps torn and bleeding, 
tells of the shepherd's self-sacrifice and loving 
quest, while the shepherd's happy, love-lighted 
face, and his strong shoulders bent to their 
burden, tell of the rescue and security of the 
prized and pitied sheep. That Good Shepherd 
is Jesus, our blessed Lord ; and, like the lost, 
but rescued sheep, some of us were once wan- 
derers in the wilderness of sin, "going astray; 
but are now returned unto the Shepherd and 
Bishop of our souls." 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 37 

" But none of the ransomed ever knew 
How deep were the waters crossed ; 
Or how dark was the night that the 
Lord passed through 
Ere He found His sheep that was lost 
Out in the desert He heard its cry — 
Sick and helpless, and ready to die." 

This essential relationship between Christ and 
His Church, so briefly and yet graphically de- 
lineated by our Lord, is also illustrated in the 
Scriptures by architectural figures. Christ is rep- 
resented as "the chief corner stone/' and "the 
head of the corner ;" but "the building, fitly 
framed together," extending from foundation to 
headstone, is the structure of which Saint Paul 
wrote in the following words: "The building 
fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy 
temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are 
builded together for an habitation of God 
through the Spirit " (Eph. 2: 21, 22). It seems 
certain that the apostle's conception of Christ 
and the Church being built together as a dwell- 
ing-place for God, was drawn from the archi- 
tecture of the Tabernacle, and its sacred use as 
a shrine for Deity; if anyone says the Tem- 
ple was in the mind of the apostle rather than 
the Tabernacle, let him remember that the 



38 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

Temple was only the Tabernacle reproduced in 
stone upon a more extensive and elaborate 
scale, — a fact that is not without important 
significance. 

With the assured conviction that the ancient 
habitation of Jehovah had a dual typical purpose, 
let us now give our attention to its Framework, 
Foundations, and Coverings. 

I. The Boards of the Tabernacle. 

(Ex.26: 15-29.) 

Forty-eight boards, one cubit and a half in 
breadth, and ten cubits long, formed the walls 
or framework of the costly and beautiful build- 
ing within the Court. These boards represented 
God's people of Israel, and they also foreshad- 
owed Christian believers of this present dispen- 
sation. This idea and method of representation 
did not originate with the Tabernacle. When 
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy 
of the elders of Israel were called to come up 
unto the Lord and worship, we read that Moses 
" rose up early in the morning, and builded an 
altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according 
to the twelve tribes of Israel " (Ex. 24 : 4) . Con- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 39 

cerning the representative purpose of these pil- 
lars we can have no uncertainty ; there were 
twelve pillars for the twelve tribes. That the 
boards in the Tabernacle were a further devel- 
opment of this same idea of representation, and 
that this was God's thought and purpose in 
them, we are assured beyond a doubt. This 
interpretation of the boards may be rather new 
to many, and it may seem to be more fanciful 
than rational ; nevertheless, if you will accept it 
for the present, while we consider some practi- 
cal truths suggested by these representative 
boards, we will later return to this thought and 
give you some further evidence that God in- 
tended that they should represent His people. 

Concerning the boards, you will notice the 
following truths : 

1. They were hewn from trees grown in na- 
ture's wild and uncultivated forests. There was 
a time when they had a common standing with 
all the other trees, and between them and their 
fellows their was no great difference of nature. 
Surely their wilderness growth and standing were 
a fitting symbol of our common humanity. 
Whatever any of us may have become through 
the marvelous ministrations of God's abounding 



40 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

grace, it is absolutely true, and without a single 
exception, that " we all . . . were by nature the 
children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2: 3). 
Let none of us forget where the Lord found us, 
and let no one boast of his natural goodness as 
though he had always stood in the choicest cor- 
ner of the garden of the Lord. 

2. The boards were chosen, taken from the 
forests, and fitted for a place in God's building. 
There came a time when some one capable of 
making the choice, went forth on the mission of 
selection and appropriation, and the trees were 
prepared for the building of God. This may not 
in every respect parallel, but it certainly illus- 
trates the Holy Spirit's work in consummating 
God's elective plan for the building of His spirit- 
ual temple. " We all . . . were by nature the 
children of wrath, even as others. But God, who 
is rich in mercy, . . . hath raised us up together, 
and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus " ( Eph. 2 : 4, 6). 

3. After the boards were fitly framed, they 
were overlaid with pure gold. The grain of the 
wood was still there, and any other defects or 
characteristics of the material from which they 
were made ; the wood nature was still resident 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 41 

in those beautiful slabs of gold. Here, beloved, 
the typical teaching is unmistakable and very 
accurate. The boards might have been made 
of solid gold,— probably God could have found 
enough for this,— if being thus made they would 
have better represented the truest and highest 
types of Christian character and experience. So 
far as we have observed, solid gold would have 
implied more than the most perfect of human 
beings can truthfully claim ; it would have mis- 
represented any Christianity which it has ever 
been our privilege to see exhibited in human life. 
The Scriptures teach that every regenerate per- 
son has two natures: one, received from the 
first Adam by natural generation, which is hope- 
lessly bad and legally dead; the other, received 
from the second Adam by regeneration, which 
is the nature of God Himself, and is therefore 
wholly good. Between these two natures there 
is a life-long conflict. " The flesh lusteth against 
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and 
these are contrary the one to the other " ( Gal. 
5 : 17). Must the flesh, then, be ever exhibiting 
itself in the life of the believer? No, for God 
has made ample provisions for him to live and 
triumph in his new nature. Listen: "Walk in 



42 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the 
flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). It does not say that the one 
who walks in the Spirit shall not have fleshly 
lusts, but that he shall not fulfill them. This life 
of triumph through the Spirit, with the right- 
eousness of Christ imputed as a legal inheritance, 
is the most exalted Christian experience prom- 
ised or revealed in the New Testament. Chris- 
tians who are living this exalted, and yet 
perfectly normal life, are like the gold-covered 
boards of the Tabernacle. Their only boast is, 
"He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" 
(Eph, 1:6). Their confident affirmation at all 
times is, 

" Jesus, Thy robe of righteousness 
My beauty is, my glorious dress ; 
'Mid flaming worlds, in this arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head." 

II. The Foundation of the Boards. 

(Ex.26: 19-25.) 

In passing to study the Tabernacle Founda- 
tion, we have not forgotten our promise to give 
you further evidence that the boards represented 
God's people; before we do this, however, we 
need to advance somewhat into the part of the 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 43 

subject now under consideration. Here we are 
to see the Lord Jesus again in clear f oreshadow- 
ings of what He is to His people, and this is to 
supply the evidence for which we are waiting. 

1. The Foundation was extravagantly expen- 
sive and intrinsically precious,— ninety-six sock- 
ets of silver, " a talent for a socket," or about 
ninety-three pounds. Nearly four and a half 
tons of silver was made into foundation sock- 
ets, representing more than two hundred thou- 
sand dollars in intrinsic value ; it was indeed a 
very expensive foundation. And why was so 
much value buried in the sands of the wilderness 
when some cheaper material would have been 
just as servicable? Because God was foreshad- 
owing a Foundation, " elect, precious," and that 
made it worth while, yea, necessary, to use silver 
rather than some cheaper substance. That 
foundation of silver should convince every 
thoughtful Bible student that the Tabernacle 
was intended for some other and higher purpose 
than just to provide a place of worship for the 
Israelites while they were in the wilderness. 

2. The Foundation Sockets were cast from the 
Atonement Silver given by the numbered of Is- 
rael. The Lord commanded Moses to take the 



44 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

sum of the children of Israel, and every man, 
from twenty years old and upwards, was to give 
as " a ransom for his soul," a piece of silver of a 
half-shekel weight. The poor might not give 
less and the rich might not give more. Ever 
after, that silver offering stood to the account 
of the one who gave it into the treasury of the 
sanctuary for the redemption of his soul; 
it remained an atonement foundation upon 
which he was given a standing among the 
numbered of Israel. The silver thus gath- 
ered, was then cast into the foundation 
sockets and placed under the boards, giving 
unto the boards a standing upon atonement. 
And now a question: Who or what in all this 
universe stands upon atonement? There is but 
one answer,— God's redeemed people alone have 
this blood-bought distinction. Here, then, is the 
promised further evidence that the boards repre- 
sented the people of God. It was because of their 
representative character, and because they were 
a part of a wonderful drama in which Christ 
and His atoning work were being shadowed 
forth before the faith of the ancient worshipers, 
that God commanded these tons of atonement 
silver to be laid in the sands of the wilderness 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 45 

beneath the Tabernacle boards. This is the 
only interpretation known unto us, which ex- 
plains and justifies an expenditure that other- 
wise would seem to have been a useless 
extravagance. That foundation of silver fore- 
shadowed another and better foundation. Saint 
Paul referred to it when he wrote, "Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ " (1 Cor. 3 : 11). 

■ On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. 
All other ground is sinking sand." 

III. The Bars for Stability and Security. 

(Ex.26: 26-29.) 

The boards were firmly bound together and 
kept in their upright positions in the building, 
by means of acacia wood Bars covered with 
gold. There were five bars on each side, and 
five on the westward end ; the middle one of 
each set was twice as long as the others, extend- 
ing the entire length of the wall on which it 
was placed. Golden rings were probably formed 
on the boards, and through these the bars were 
passed. During the years of its ministry, the 
Tabernacle was, of course, frequently assailed 
by fierce winds and storms, and at such times 



46 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

its stability was greatly increased because of the 
bars. This, unquestionably, was the primary 
purpose of putting them in their places, but is it 
not also possible that they were intended to have 
a typical as well as a utilitarian purpose? May 
they not have foreshadowed the bands of grace 
which are thrown around believers in their temp- 
tations and trial hours to keep them from being 
led away or overthrown by the tempter's delu- 
sions and opposition? I am not one of those 
who believe that it is absolutely impossible for 
believers to make shipwreck of faith, and to 
even go so far as to repudiate the Lord Jesus as 
Saviour, and to count His precious blood by which 
they were redeemed, a needless and useless effu- 
sion; when such apostasies occur, they place 
their adherents, — and I shall put it, perhaps, 
short of the actual truth (Heb. 6: 4-6), — in 
great danger of eternal damnation. I do believe, 
however, that very few who are truly regener- 
ated by the word of truth, and the power of the 
Holy Spirit, ever, in their faith, turn away from 
the Lord. Their lives may become careless and 
worldly, and they may be out of fellowship with 
their Lord, but that does not necessarily mean 
out of sonship. Their position, however, is one 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 47 

of grave peril, for being out of fellowship may- 
end in being out of sonship ; for this reason, the 
Shepherd and Bishop of their souls is seeking 
them with great anxiety and concern. I am per- 
suaded that He is willing and able to keep that 
which faith commits to His care (2 Tim. 1: 12), 
but when faith repudiates and dismisses Him 
from His trust, He is then as powerless to act in 
such an individual's interests as He is in the in- 
terests of other unbelievers. While faith retains 
jesus as Saviour, 

" His honor is engaged to save 
The meanest of His sheep ; 
All, whom His Heavenly Father gave, 
His hands securely keep." 

Look upon those bars, beloved, and remember 
that "God is able to make all grace abound to- 
ward you ; that ye, always having all sufficiency 
in all things, may abound to every good work " 
(2 Cor. 9: 8). 

IV. The Coverings of the Tabernacle. 

(Ex. 26:1-14.) 

Four sets of Coverings were spread over the 
Tabernacle, entirely concealing from outside 
view its beautiful framework of gold. In these 



48 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

coverings we shall again see our Lord Jesus, and 
receive a further revelation of what His atone- 
ment has secured for believers. The Hebrew 
word usually translated " atonement " is kaphar} 
and its meaning is "to cover." Accordingly, 
then, whatever stands upon atonement must be 
covered. This is true of the boards which stood 
upon the atonement silver; they were covered 
with materials and colors which were express- 
ive of atonement. Is not this a remarkable con- 
firmation of the typical hypothesis which we are 
applying in our interpretation of this divinely 
planned and appointed building? The number 
of the coverings certainly expressed more than 
mere utility; they told of the plentitude of re- 
demption which should be provided in the com- 
ing atonement of the world's Redeemer. No 
part of the Tabernacle's symbolism is more full 



x The English word " atonement " (at-one-ment) is not a 
translation of the Heb. kaphar, but a translator's interpreta- 
tion. According to Scripture the legal sacrifice " covered " 
the offerer's sin and secured the divine forgiveness; accord- 
ing to the translators it made God and the sinner at-one. 
But the Old Testament sacrifices did not at-one the sinner 
and God. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats 
should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). The Israelite's offer- 
ing implied confession of sin and of its due desert, death; 
and God "covered" ("passed over," Rom. 3: 25) his sin, in 
anticipation of Christ *s sacrifice, which did, finally, "put 
away" the sins "done aforetime in the forbearance of God" 
(Rom. 3: 25; Heb. 9: 15). —Rev. C /. Scofield, D. D. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 49 

of blessed and assuring instruction than the 
coverings, and perhaps no part has received less 
attention from the students of this sacred struc- 
ture. We should not fail to realize that these 
four coverings represent different and important 
aspects of the redemption secured to believers 
through the atonement, aspects which are more 
or less fully apprehended by all Christians. But 
the fuller the apprehension, the larger the meas- 
ure of assurance and joy. To lead faith on to 
an ever increasing apprehension of its heritage 
in the atonement, was the purpose of the cover- 
ings ; for this reason I suggest that we give them 
our careful attention. 

1. The Covering of Badgers' Skins was the 
outer covering, and was the one seen by those 
who were on the outside of the building. It was 
without especial natural beauty, even while the 
Tabernacle was new, — just a covering of brown 
and unsightly skins ; later, when it had become 
scorched by the sun's hot rays, and drenched 
with the beating rains of the wilderness, it was 
less beautiful. This was the outward and world- 
ward aspect of that wonderfully typical build- 
ing. Its gold, fragrance, and light were all 
within. All who saw the beauty of God's dwell- 



50 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ing-place, were required to draw nigh by the 
altar and laver, and to "enter in through the 
Door." There was no other way to see the glory 
of the Tabernacle. 

Jesus told men how to find the inside beauty of 
things Divine, when He said to the Jews, "If any 
man will do His will, he shall know of the doc- 
trine, whether it be of God " ( John 7:17). To be 
uninitiated in the spiritual experiences of regen- 
eration, disqualifies men to understand and ap- 
preciate spiritual truths and lives. ' ' The natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither 
can he know them, for they are spiritually dis- 
cerned " ( 1 Cor. 2 :14 ) . The natural man is dead 
in his spiritual nature, that part of his original 
endowment which enabled him to go forth into 
the spiritual realm, receiving and enjoying its 
verities. In his deadened condition, prayer, wor- 
ship, and all spiritual truths are foolishness unto 
him; and the larger his intellect, the more fool- 
ish, perhaps, they will all seem. 

To the eye of men generally, Jesus had little 
or no comeliness, nor any beauty that they should 
desire Him; He was despised and rejected of 
men, and they turned their faces from Him (Isa. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 51 

53 : 2, 3 ). He was indeed a lowly Saviour in His 
outward appearance. He probably wore no pre- 
tentious ecclesiastical robes, neither laid He 
claim to social or scholastic pre-eminence of any 
kind,— airs and vanities which have always im- 
pressed the carnally minded, even among those 
who have a religious reputation. Indeed, it was 
religious people who asked, " Is not this the car- 
penter?" and upon being answered in the 
affirmative, "they were offended at Him." It 
was because those worldly questioners stood on 
the outside of God's revelation, and in the dark- 
ness of their own blind and deceived hearts, that 
they misunderstood and rejected the Christ. 

The Master told His disciples that the same 
misunderstanding and rejection which He had re- 
ceived, awaited them and all who would be His un- 
compromising followers. " Because ye are not of 
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
therefore the world hatethyou" (John 15: 19). 
This is a hard saying to many church members, 
now as then, and as they are unable to reconcile 
it with their views of the friendly relations which 
they think ought to exist between the Church 
and the world, they have set themselves to the 
task of working out a religio-socialistic adjust- 



52 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ment that shall please and win men for the 
Church, without demanding of them a full sur- 
render to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. 
This new adjustment can never be made until 
the Church surrenders her adjustment of loyalty 
to the word and will of God. " Know ye not 
that the friendship of the world is enmity with 
God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of 
the world is the enemy of God " (James 4:4). 
Dear Christians, do not try to win the world's 
approval and friendship, but try to practice the 
precepts of Jesus, and to so follow in the foot- 
prints of His loyalty to God and truth, that your 
life may reprove and condemn the world. The 
principal reason why it is so hard to win people 
to Christ in these days, or to do any kind of spir- 
itual work in our churches, is because church 
membership is being made up more and more, 
of people who belong to the world rather than to 
Christ ; they are more loyal to the world than to 
Him, more occupied with pleasure-seeking than 
with soul-winning, more interested in worldly 
and fashionable functions than in prayer-meet- 
ings, and better acquainted with the daily papers 
and current magazines than with the Bible. 
Such church people have much to say about so- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 53 

ciology and its expected triumphs in establish- 
ing the kingdom of God among men, while their 
interest in clear-cut scriptural evangelism seems 
to be rapidly waning. Church members of this 
kind are sure to make a worldly and unsanctified 
church, and a worldly and unsanctified church 
is sure to make the world more unbelieving and ir- 
religious,— just the conditions which are increas- 
ing with alarming rapidity in most communities 
at this very hour. A redeemed and sanctified 
church will be as unattractive to the carnal 
world as was the covering of badgers' skins to 
outside beholders, but with God and truth en- 
shrined within, the life and testimony of such a 
church will convict and disturb those who are 
living in sin, and some of them will believe and 
turn unto the Lord. 

2. The Covering of Rams' Skins Dyed Red. 
This was the second covering from the outside, 
and as it could have been little needed for pro- 
tection, its use must have been largely typical. 
The boards stood upon atonement, therefore, as 
we have said before, their coverings were in- 
tended to express great atonement truths. It 
was the covering of rams' skins dyed red that 
Justice saw, and in this covering it found full 



54 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

satisfaction. Is not this a beautiful picture of 
what Christ through His atonement has secured 
for all believers? And do not Christians need 
to apprehend this blessed truth, and so come to 
rest with unquestioning confidence in the Sav- 
iour's settlement of the sinner's awful debt, 
without feeling that any supplemental and mer- 
itorious works are needed to secure its adequacy? 

" Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe." 

The "rams' skins" can hardly fail to remind 
us of Jehovah's call to Abraham to go into the 
land of Moriah, and upon a mountain of which 
he should be told, offer his son Isaac for a burnt- 
offering. Abraham was obedient to the heav- 
enly voice, and rising early in the morning he 
made ready for the faithful performance of the 
Divine commission. Having completed all pre- 
liminary arrangements, he took his son, his " only 
son Isaac," and with two of his faithful servants, 
began the sad journey. On the morning of the 
third day they saw and recognized the appointed 
place, — the mountain that for some good reason 
God had selected as the place for the enacting 
of this profoundly significant scene. At the base 
of the mountain the servants were left, and 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 55 

Abraham with his son continued the journey 
alone. The wood for the burnt-offering was laid 
upon Isaac, but the knife and the fire, Abraham 
carried in his own hand. As they went on their 
way, the thoughtful Isaac said to his father, " Be- 
hold the fire and the wood: but where is the 
lamb for the burnt-offering ? ' ' The grief -stricken 
father answered, probably better than he knew, 
"God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt- 
offering " (Gen. 22 : 8) . When they came to the 
place of which God had spoken unto Abraham, 
an altar was erected, the wood put in place 
thereon, and Isaac was then bound and laid upon 
the wood. When all was in readiness, Abraham 
approached the altar, and, with the gleaming 
knife in his uplifted hand, was about to strike 
the fatal blow, when God who had spoken to him 
in the beginning, now spoke to him again from 
heaven, and said, " Lay not thine hand upon the 
lad, neither do thou anything unto him : for now 
I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou 
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from 
me" (Gen. 22:12). In lifting his eyes at the 
sound of the voice, Abraham saw a ram caught 
in a thicket, and he took the ram and offered it 
as a burnt-offering in the place of his son. 



56 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

This whole transaction was unquestionably- 
typical. The ram providentially caught in the 
thicket, and his many sacrificial successors, were 
God's accepted substitute for Isaac and all be- 
lievers, until the time came for God to " provide 
Himself a lamb,"—- "the Lamb" which should 
bear away the sin of the world. Isaac, who, 
"obedient unto death," bearing the wood upon 
which he was to be offered, was a striking type 
of Christ. We have no doubt that the mountain 
in the land of Moriah, to which Abraham was 
directed to go, was the very hill up which our 
Lord wearily bore His heavy cross ; and prob- 
ably the very spot upon which Abraham built 
his altar, was where the cross of Jesus stood, and 
where God, because of His great love for a lost 
world, " spared not His own Son, but delivered 
Him up for us all," the perfect burnt-offering in 
which we are accepted. 

V Under an eastern sky, 
Amid a rabble cry, 
A man went forth to die 
For me. 

" Thorn-crowned His blessed head, 
Blood-stained His weary tread, 
Cross-laden on He sped 
For me." 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 57 

The reddened skins which made the second 
covering of the Tabernacle, were only a few of 
the " dyed red " skins, crimsoned with the flood 
of sacrificial blood which flowed through many 
centuries, and spoke of the " better blood " of the 
Lamb of God,— blood which has fully satisfied 
God's righteous justice, and is a covering for all 
the saints. 

3. The Covering of White Curtains made of 
Goats' Hair. This third covering of the Taber- 
nacle is interpreted by some as representing the 
perfect righteousness of the Saviour. An im- 
portant truth is to be recognized in this interpre- 
tation. We know that Christ, by His atonement, 
has not only satisfied Justice, but has secured for 
believers a covering of His own spotless right- 
eousness; this was the teaching of the gold- 
covered boards. In the goats' hair covering, 
however, we are convinced that a somewhat dif- 
ferent aspect of truth is presented. The material 
of which this covering was made, should suggest 
to us the truth that God intended it to fore- 
shadow. 

On the Day of Atonement two goats were 
brought into the Court before the Brazen Altar, 
an ?■ th°, High Priest cast lots upon them, one be- 



58 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ing taken " for the Lord," and the other " for the 
scapegoat." The goat upon which the Lord's lot 
fell was slain for a sin-offering, and its blood was 
carried into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled 
seven times upon and before the Mercy-Seat. 
It was for atonement, " because of the unclean- 
ness of the children of Israel, and because of 
their transgressions in all their sins" (Lev. 16: 
16). Here was foreshadowed Christ's death for 
sins, the one offering which made it possible for 
God to "be just, and the justifier of him which 
believeth in Jesus " ( Rom. 3 : 24-26 ) . l The sec- 
ond goat was then brought to the priest, and with 
both hands laid upon its head, he confessed the 
sins of the people, " putting them upon the head of 
the goat." This goat was then sent "by the 
hand of a fit man " into the wilderness, and there 
it was set at liberty. " The goat shall bear upon 
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhab- 
ited" (Lev. 16: 22). Here we see Christ bear- 
ing away our sins " as far as the east is from the 
west." Of these two goats, Professor Moore- 
head says : " Both animals were charged with 



1 There is no thought here of placating a vengeful God, but 
the making possible for Him to honor His holy law and at 
the same time righteously show mercy. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 59 

the iniquities and transgressions of the congrega- 
tion ; and the reasons for the use of two instead 
of one, as in the ordinary sin-sacrifice, is prob- 
ably that given by Keil, namely, the impossibil- 
ity of combining in one victim all that it was the 
Divine purpose to set forth. The cognate truths 
of expiation and remission are most graphically 
exhibited in the transaction. The slain goat 
symbolizes the great truth of atonement— cover- 
ing of sins by the blood ; the scapegoat, their re- 
moval. God has His claim upon the sinner 
which must be met — the execution of the right- 
eous penalty due his sins. The sinner has needs 
also, namely, the remission of his trespasses. 
The punishment of sin, the removal of sin,— 
these are the truths taught by the two goats. 
That the whole transaction has its accomplish- 
ment in Christ, scarcely requires to be pointed 
out. The very language of this chapter is car- 
ried over into later Scripture and applied to Him 
(Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 ; 1 Pet. 2 : 24, etc.)." The 
covering of goats' hair was the covering which 
God saw- ABSOLUTION. 

4. The Covering of Fine Twined Linen. This 
was the inside covering, and the only one seen 
by the dwellers in the Holy Place. It unques- 



60 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

tionably foreshadowed Christ in the amplitude of 
His manifestation to the faith and apprehension 
of believers. In material and coloring, this cov- 
ering was identical with the veil, and the writer 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares that the 
veil represented Christ in His incarnation (Heb. 
10: 20). In perfect harmony with the symbol- 
ism of this fourth covering is the experience of 
every scripturally enlightened Christian; Jesus, 
and Jesus only, fills the entire vision and answers 
to every exigency in time and eternity. 

" Thou, O Christ, art all I want ; 
More than all in Thee I find." 

In accepting this interpretation of the linen 
covering, we come to see that its colors, blue, 
purple, and scarlet, have an important signifi- 
cance ; indeed they express the Divine fulness in 
Jesus of which we have been speaking. 

The Blue told of our Lord's heavenly origin,— 
of His Deity. Faith sees in Jesus more than 
mere humanity ; it sees Him to be " the Christ, 
the Son of the living God." This may be an of- 
fence to Judaism and Unitarianism, but it is not 
to the Divinely illuminated Christian (Matt. 16 : 
16, 17). He beholds the heavenly blue in the 
Man of Galilee, and worships him as very God. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 61 

Heaven has always accepted and blessed such 
worship. 

The Purple was the royal color, and it spoke of 
the kingship of Jesus. Gabriel in announcing 
the conception and birth, said: "He shall be 
called the Son of the Highest : and the Lord God 
shall give unto Him the throne of His father 
David: and He shall reign over the house of 
Jacob for ever ; and of His kingdom there shall 
be no end " ( Luke 1 : 32, 33 ). Up to this hour 
this prediction has received no fulfillment ; nev- 
ertheless, in spite of delay and apparent failure, 
there are those who see the royal purple in re- 
demption, and are patiently waiting and praying 
for the coming of the King and the establishment 
of His kingdom. 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run." 

The Scarlet was the sacrificial color, and it 
was typical of the blood under which saints dwell 
in perpetual security. Those who despise and 
reject the atoning blood of Jesus, and trust to 
character instead, will discover in the light of 
the great white throne that they turned away 
from the only door of salvation and eternal life. 
Character is included in God's purposes concern- 



62 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ing His people, but it is very certain that He 
never intended that faith in character should 
dissipate faith in the atonement of His Son, and 
in the precious blood, without which there is no 
remission of sins. 

In this inside covering, as in the veil, Cherubic 
figures were inwrought with threads of gold. 
All who dwelt in the Tabernacle were under the 
sheltering wings and perpetual vigils of those 
typical figures. May we not believe that these 
were intended to remind believers of the minister- 
ing angels which are " sent forth to minister for 
them who shall be heirs of salvation " ( Heb. 1 : 
14 ) ? There is no more inspiring theme taught 
in the Bible than the one worked out by the 
threads of gold in the linen covering. The 
saints who saw this wonderful building from the 
inside must have felt as many of us have when 
we have joined with others in singing that old, 
but blessed stanza, 

M Angels now are hovering round us, 
Unperceived they mix our throng ; 
Wondering at the love that crowns us, 
Glad to join us in our song." 



THIRD LECTURE- 



THE HOLY PLACE IN THE TENT OF 
MEETING. 

/. The Table of Showbread. 
II. The Golden Candlestick. 
IIL The A Itar of Incense. 






[ 



— "V"*" 





THE HOLY PLACE IN THE TENT 
OF MEETING. 

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ... let us draw near with a 
true heart in fulness of faith." — Heb. 10 : 19, 22, R. V. 

Having considered the typical significance of 
the outer court and the materials from which 
the Tent of Meeting was constructed, we are 
now ready to enter the wonderful building and 
study its interior and furnishings. The in- 
terior was divided into two rooms; the first 
one, the subject of our present study, was 
twenty cubits in length and ten cubits wide 
and high, and was called the Holy Place. As 
the court foreshadowed Christ's earthly work 
for repentant seekers, so in this room was fore- 
shadowed our Lord's present ministry in the 
heavens for all who have drawn nigh by the 
blood of Jesus, and by the laver of regeneration. 



66 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

In studying the Holy Place, you will notice the 
following truths : 

1. Only priests were admitted to that sacred 
apartment. Such limitation was imposed be- 
cause of the smallness of the room, and because 
the actual presence of the people was made 
unnecessary by the representative investiture 
and ministry of the priesthood. The people 
were always representatively present in their 
priests. In the Christian dispensation, every 
believer is a priest, and is anointed to dwell 
and serve in the Holy Place. Saint Peter ad- 
dressed believers as "a royal priesthood" (1 
Pet. 2:9). Fellow Christian, you may not be- 
lieve in this or that man's theory of holiness, 
but in holiness itself you must believe, and the 
Holy Place you must recognize as the home 
where God asks His children to continually 
abide. 

2. In the Holy Place all was gold, light, fra- 
grance, and beauty. The furniture was of gold, 
as were the walls on either side of the room. 
Overhead were the beautiful linen coverings of 
blue, purple, and scarlet, with cherubic figures 
skillfully embroidered therein, and at either 
end were hangings of the same material and 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 67 

colors. The apartment was flooded with light 
from the seven-branched golden candlestick, and 
filled with fragrance from the burning incense, 
offered every morning and evening upon the 
golden altar. Surely no other dwelling so at- 
tractive could be found among all the tents 
of Israel! To live in the Holy Place, was 
not, neither is it now, an impoverishment of 
life. 

3. Only a veil hung between the Holy Place 
and the Holy of Holies. Just beyond the veil 
was the Ark of the Covenant with its golden 
Mercy-seat, and upon this was enthroned the 
glory which represented Jehovah's presence. 
It is not surprising that one who was familiar 
with this arrangement and understood its typical 
significance, should express his faith in the fol- 
lowing language : " He that dwelleth in the se- 
cret place of the Most High shall abide under the 
shadow of the Almighty " ( Ps. 91 : 1 ) . The typ- 
ical teaching here, which shows that God wants 
His people near to Himself, is full of comforting 
and assuring instruction for those who dwell in 
the secret place of the Lord. The Secret Place 
is the Holy Place, and all who abide there will 
find fellowship, instruction, protection, strength, 



68 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

comfort, and every spiritual gift which their 
lives and service can possibly need. 

" Take time to be holy, 
Speak oft with thy Lord ; 
Abide in Him always, 
And feed on His Word. 

" Take time to be holy, 
The world rushes on ; 
Spend much time in secret 
With Jesus alone." 

The Holy Place contained three articles of fur- 
niture, each very significant; an altar upon 
which the incense was burned, a table used as a 
receptacle for the showbread, and the wonderful 
seven-branched candlestick, familiar to all read- 
ers of either of the two Testaments. We are 
now to study these sacred furnishings, and note 
the truths foreshadowed by them. 

I. The Table of Showbread. 

(Ex. 25: 23-30.) 
(Lev. 24: 5-10.) 

The table of showbread was placed on the 
north side of the Holy Place and directly oppo- 
site the candlestick. It was made of acacia wood 
and overlaid with pure gold ; the precious metal 
being so formed that a "crown" or " border" 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 69 

was made round about its top. This served to 
keep the bread and small dishes in place upon 
the table during the wilderness marches ( Num, 
4: 7). The Lord instructed Moses concerning 
the table thus : " Thou shalt set upon the table 
showbread before me alway" (Ex. 25: 30). 
With the return of each Sabbath, twelve loaves, 
or cakes, of fresh bread were placed upon this 
table, and those loaves which had remained be- 
fore the Lord during the week were removed, 
and became food for the priests; "It was 
Aaron's and his sons' ; and they shall eat it in the 
holy place" (Lev. 24: f 9). The frankincense 
which was spread over the loaves while they 
were upon the table, was removed with the stale 
bread, and, probably, burned upon the golden 
altar. This is implied in Lev. 24 : 7. The frank- 
incense was " to the bread for a memorial," and 
although the bread was eaten by the priests, 
it was also offered unto God, and by Him ac- 
cepted, in the burning of the incense. The 
word "showbread" means literally "bread of 
the presence," or "presence-bread." 1 Its name, 
and the fact that Moses was commanded to 



1 C. W. Wilson in Hasting's Bible Dictionary. 



70 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

" set it before the Lord alway," place us in pos- 
session of its typical significance ; it was a me- 
morial unto the Lord, the shadow of a blessed 
truth, progressive and extended in its applica- 
tion. 

1. The Twelve Loaves represented the Twelve 
Tribes of Israel. This was their typical incipi- 
ency. Each tribe stood, represented by his 
frankincense-covered loaf, in the presence of 
God in the Holy Place. Little Benjamin was 
there as truly as was the kingly tribe of Judah ; 
unstable Reuben held his place beside the priestly 
tribe of Levi. No part of God's great family, 
however much they may have differed in tempera- 
ment or ministry, were forgotten, or in any way 
discriminated against upon this table of pre- 
sentation. They were all and always in the 
presence of Jehovah, made acceptable to Him by 
a covering of merit and fragrance not their own. 
Thus holding their place in His presence, God 
could never forget His covenant relations with 
them, nor disregard His mighty and far-reaching 
pledges to be their Redeemer and King. 

2. As one Bread, the Loaves foreshadowed the 
Christ. While our Lord was among men, He 
said, " I am the living bread which came down 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 71 

from heaven " (John 6 : 51 ). It was the manna, 
that food which "came down" for the Israel- 
ites in the wilderness, that was in the thought of 
the Master when He made this reference to Him- 
self as bread. The manna was indeed a remark- 
able type of Christ as the God-given food for a 
famishing world. But the showbread typified 
Christ as the grain of wheat ground between the 
upper and nether stones of suffering, and passing 
through the fierce fires of judgment and death. 
It was only after these had prepared Him, as the 
bread is prepared by passing through the mill 
and the oven, that He returned to heaven and 
offered Himself as the perfect presence-bread. 
And so the writer of the Hebrews says : " Christ 
is not entered into the holy places made with 
hands, which are the figures of the true; but 
into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence 
of God for us" (Heb. 9: 24). All that the 
twelve loaves could representatively mean for 
Israel, Christ really is for all His people, and 
more. The Father " hath raised us up together, 
and made us sit together, in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus " (Eph. 2:4). The " heavenly places" 
are the "holy places" not made with hands. 
There we are made to sit together in our living 



72 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

and glorified Presence-Bread. Covered with the 
frankincense of His righteousness we are ac- 
cepted and recognized in the holy presence of 
God, the weakest and most obscure as well as 
the strongest and most illustrious. Jesus in the 
glory is God's sure pledge that all who believe in 
Him, will some day, by and by, be gathered and 
enthroned there with their Royal Redeemer. 

3. The Showbread beautifully typified God's 
rich provision for the spiritual refreshing of His 
people. It has already been noticed that the 
bread, when removed from the table, was eaten 
by the priests in the Holy Place. Christian pil- 
grims have a table of which the world knows 
nothing, and it affords more satisfaction than all 
the world's places of pleasure and intemperate 
feasting. Those who abide in the Holy Place 
have food that satisfies all the cravings of the hu- 
man soul. Christ Jesus is the True Bread which 
God gave for the life of the world, and all who 
eat of this Bread shall live forever. "Eat, O 
friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved " 
(S.ofS.,5:l). 

" Ever may our souls be fed 
With this true and living bread." 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 73 

II. The Golden Candlestick. 

(Ex.25: 31-39). 

The great candelabrum in the Holy Place was 
a most expensive and beautiful piece of work- 
manship. It was made of pure gold, and with 
its seven branches, its bowls, its knops, and 
its flowers, all very delicately and cunningly 
wrought by the hands of a master workman, it 
must have presented a very beautiful appear- 
ance when it had been lighted by the high priest. 
Its position was directly opposite the table which 
has already been considered, and its office was 
to furnish light for those who dwelt and minis- 
tered in the Holy Place. A talent of gold was 
used in its construction, this giving to it an in- 
trinsic value which has been estimated to be 
more than twenty-seven thousand dollars. 

Surely such a beautiful and expensive piece of 
sacred furniture must have had some typical 
significance. It had; and, happily, the Scrip- 
tures aid us in discovering the important truths 
which it was intended to foreshadow. In the 
first chapter of the Revelation, a remarkable vis- 
ion is recorded. John saw what might have 
been an enlargement of this same seven-branched 



74 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

golden candlestick ; and ministering as its keeper, 
he saw one in priestly attire, whom he recog- 
nized as the Son of man,— the Lord Jesus— 
upon whose bosom he had once leaned in inti- 
mate friendship. It seems very certain that the 
symbolism in this vision was taken " bodily from 
the great candlestick of the tent and the temple, 
and from the priestly functions connected there- 
with." 1 In explaining the vision, the one who 
had been dead, but was alive for evermore, said : 
" The seven candlesticks are the seven churches " 
(Rev. 1 : 20). Seven is the sacred number used 
to represent completeness, and here it would in- 
dicate that the seven candlesticks stood for the 
entire Church,— the whole body of believers 
through all ages and in all lands. 

The candlestick of the Tabernacle and its 
priestly keeper, furnish a very lucid commentary 
upon the seemingly paradoxical teachings of 
Jesus concerning the light of the world. While 
our Lord was in the world, He said of Himself, 
" I am the light of the world ; " but in view of 
His departure into the heavens, and the leaving 
of His Church behind in the world's darkness, 



Morehead. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 75 

He said to His disciples, " Ye are the light of the 
world." In the symbolism of the candlestick and 
its keeper, each of these statements is interpreted, 
and both of them are shown to be true. The 
priest kept the lamps in order, and supplied them 
with wicks and oil to feed the flame and keep it 
constantly shining ; hence it was he who was the 
source of the light. In just this way Christ is the 
light of the world. The candlestick was made and 
furnished with lamps that they might receive oil 
and wicks, and the touch of fire from the priestly 
torch, and then let its light shine and radiate, 
dispelling the surrounding gloom. It is in this 
way that the Church is the light of the world, 
Jesus said, " Let your light so shine before men, 
that they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5: 16). 
This is the Master's great purpose in His Church. 
He desires that her light shall go to the ends of 
the earth, that the many who sit in the darkness 
of sin and death may have the light of sal- 
tion and life. " God, who commanded the light 
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ " ( 2 Cor. 
4: 6). It is only while God shines in, that the 



76 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

Church can shine out It is only while she 
dwells in the Holy Place, and enjoys the constant 
ministry of the Great High Priest, that she 
shall continue to shine. She may have culture 
and wealth, social and moral influence, but these 
are not the radiancy that Jesus asks, nor the 
shining that this dark world needs. Daily, if not 
hourly, every member of the earthly candlestick 
should apply to the High Priest of his profession 
to replenish the oil of grace within his soul, that 
the light of his new life and hope may shine 
forth to others, kindling within their hearts new 
longings, and illuminating before them the way 
that leads to the cross of Jesus, and to a life of 
service for God and men, with the delectable 
hills of the homeland rising in distant but bliss- 
ful prospect upon the vision of their newly found 
faith. 

III. The Golden Altar of Incense. 

(Ex. 30:1-10.) 

Like other furnishings of the Tabernacle, the 
Altar of Incense was made of acacia wood and 
overlaid with pure gold. These seem to have 
been the sacred materials of the Sanctuary, se- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 77 

lected, probably, because of their incorruptible 
and uncorroding characteristics. Like the altar 
in the court, the Golden Altar was four-square, 
being one cubit in length and breadth. It was 
two cubits high, and was finished with a " crown 
of gold " round about its top. A horn of gold 
rose from each of its four corners. These were 
undoubtedly for lifting up and displaying the 
blood of atonement which was placed upon 
them. 

The Golden Altar was the meeting place of 
God and His people. It was placed just before 
the veil, and directly in front of the Ark of the 
Covenant. "Thou shalt put it before the veil 
that is by the ark of the testimony, before the 
mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where 
I will meet with thee" (Ex. 30: 6). This was 
the climax of all that was foreshadowed in 
the Tabernacle, — God and His people meeting 
in the fellowship and intercourse of at-one-ment. 
The meeting was before the throne of God. It 
did not foreshadow, primarily, the future meet- 
ing in the glory, but the Divine fellowship 
which heaven-bound pilgrims enjoy while they 
are sojourners in the land of their pilgrimage. 
The meeting at the Golden Altar, was, on the 



78 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

part of the people, for the offering of their 
prayers and worship ; on God's part, it was to 
give gracious answers of peace, and the be- 
stowal of His blessing. 

It is important that we discover the conditions 
upon which such fellowship with Jehovah be- 
came possible. A careful study of the Altar and 
its ritual reveals the following : 

1. The meeting at the Golden Altar followed, 
and found its warrant in the atonement made at 
the Brazen Altar. Once a year the blood of the 
sin-offering was brought to this Altar and placed 
upon its horns. "Aaron shall make an atone- 
ment upon the horns of it once in a year with 
the blood of the sin-offering of atonements " (Ex. 
30; 10). Too much emphasis cannot be placed 
upon this fact- The entire ministry of the 
Golden Altar was established upon the atone- 
ment which was made at the Brazen Altar. It 
is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, accomplished 
upon Calvary's cross, which makes it possible 
for men to meet God, and offer unto Him their 
prayers and worship, acceptable through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus. There may be 
reverent and devout words and ceremonies, sup- 
plemented with noble and religious character, 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 79 

but these must fall short of Divine recognition, 
if the atoning death and sacrificial blood of the 
Son of God are rejected. Cain brought of the 
fruit of the ground, and of his toil, and offered it 
unto the Lord. That the offering was presented 
with becoming reverence we have every reason 
to believe, but the Lord rejected it. And why ? 
because it was bloodless. Cain had rejected 
God's instructions, and then tried to win Jeho- 
vah's approval by bringing an offering that rep- 
resented only his own works and esthetic tastes. 
Of course both Cain and his offering were re- 
jected. There will be many startling and sad 
disappointments at the great White Throne for 
those who have rejected the Precious Blood, and 
have trusted in their own works of righteous- 
ness. 

" Sinful I am ; how dare I hope to stand 
In the pure glory of that holy land ? 
Before the whiteness of that Throne appear ? 
Yet there are hands stretched out to draw me near. 

*' It is the voice of Jesus that I hear ; 
His are the hands stretched out to draw me near, 
And His the BLOOD that can for all atone, 
And set me faultless there before the Throne." 

2. The Golden Altar was approached after 
purification at the Laver before the door of the 



80 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

Tabernacle. Only those who were cleansed 
might worship. The priests were required to al- 
ways wash their hands and their feet before en- 
tering the Holy Place. " When they go into the 
tabernacle . . . they shall wash . . . their hands 
and their feet, that they die not" (Ex. 30: 20, 
21 ). It was easy for them to contract defilement 
in their ministry, and in so slight a degree that 
they might not discover it ; hence the perpetual 
command to wash at the laver before coming to 
the Altar of Incense. Probably there is much of 
interruption in our worship, and many prayers 
that are hindered, because of sinful defilement. 
We may think of such pollution as a matter of 
trifling importance, but God requires its judg- 
ment and cleansing at the laver of the Word. A 
selfish thought, an unkind remark, an unjust act, 
be these ever so small, will keep us from meet- 
ing God in unrestrained fellowship; and when 
our fellowship with God is restrained or inter- 
rupted, our praises and prayers cannot abound. 
It is the continual washing that insures to us our 
continual and blessed fellowship at the altar of 
worship and prayer. " I will therefore that men 
pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without 
wrath and doubting" (1 Tim. 2: 8). 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 81 

3. Worship and prayers at the Golden Altar 
were always offered with the burning of in- 
cense. Those who came to this Altar, came in a 
fragrance, a merit not their own. We need to 
go slowly here, for shadows of sacred truths en- 
compass us. We need to be very thoughtful in 
studying the patterns of the heavenly things 
which are now before us for consideration. 

Note: (1) The incense that was offered with 
the worship and prayers was of a very special 
kind. Detailed and minute were the instruc- 
tions given concerning its composition and use. 
"The Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee 
sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum ; 
these sweet spices with pure frankincense : x of 
each shall there be a like weight : and thou shalt 
make a perfume, a confection after the art of the 
apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: 
and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put 
it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the 
congregation, where I will meet with thee : it shall 



1 Frankincense is not to be confounded with incense (to 
which it was to be added), as it is often used apart from in- 
cense. We are told what composed the incense — never in 
Scripture what the frankincense was. All speaks of Christ 
— the sweet spices of those perfections which we may appre- 
hend, the frankincense of that which God saw in Jesus inef- 
fable.— Scofield. 



82 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

be unto you most holy. And as for the perfume 
which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to 
yourselves according to the composition thereof ; 
it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whoso- 
ever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto 
shall even be cut off from his people " ( Ex. 30 : 
34-38). Expositors have not always agreed as 
to the typical meaning of this incense. Most 
of them, perhaps, have regarded it as a type of 
the worship and prayers of God's people. We do 
not so understand the symbolism. In the eighth 
chapter of the Revelation is recorded a vision of 
an altar in heaven. Its position before the throne, 
with its description as a golden altar upon 
which incense was offered, would indicate 
that it is the true Altar of which the Tabernacle 
altar was the pattern. This is what is recorded of 
the heavenly altar: "Another angel came and 
stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and 
there was given unto him much incense, that he 
should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon 
the golden altar which was before the throne. 
And the smoke of the incense, which came with 
the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God 
out of the angel's hand" (Rev. 8: 3, 4). Upon 
this heavenly altar, the incense is offered with 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 83 

the prayers, and ascends up before God with the 
prayers. We think what John saw taking place 
in heaven, is what had been foreshadowed for 
ages in the Tabernacle. When the fragrant in- 
cense was ascending from the Golden Altar, 
while the priest presented the prayers of the peo- 
ple, God was revealing the precious merits of the 
Saviour which so mingle with and perfume our 
imperfect and stammering worship and prayers, 
that they ascend up before God and are accepted 
in the meritorious Redeemer. May we ever re- 
member that our worthiness is in the blessed 
Christ. 

(2) The fire upon the Altar of Incense was 
kindled with burning coals from the Altar of 
Burnt-Offering. In this we have a further fore- 
shadowing of the truth that acceptable worship 
and prayer rest upon the atonement of Christ. 
" The cloud of incense ascending from the Golden 
Altar in the Holy Place was produced by the 
fire which had first fed upon the sacrifice of- 
fered on the Altar outside." 1 The burnt-offering 
and the pure incense measured the acceptance 
of the worship and prayers at the Altar of In- 



iDr.F. H.White. 



84 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

cense. David said, " Let my prayer be set forth 
before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of 
my hands as the evening sacrifice " ( Psa. 141 : 2). 
There seems to have been a prohibition 
against burning the incense with " strange fire," 
fire not taken from the altar in the court ; and 
it was because this commandment was disre- 
garded, that Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, 
were slain while they were ministering at the 
Golden Altar (Lev. 10: 1-3). Worship that is 
inspired by sensuous means, such as music ren- 
dered by worldly and impenitent singers, cere- 
monies and forms to gratify human vanity, an 
appeal to denominational pride and party spirit, 
and many other like methods used to promote in- 
terest and activity in religious worship and 
work, is a " strange fire " before the Lord, and 
instead of finding a place in the Divine accept- 
ance, it kindles the holy wrath of God. Heaven 
finds very little pleasure in any worship or serv- 
ice, however pretentious the temple, and elabo- 
rate and ornate the ritual, if love for God and 
truth is not the kindling and all-consuming coals 
upon the altar. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 85 

" Thee will I love, my strength, my tower ; 

Thee will I love, my joy, my crown ; 
Thee will I love with all my power, 

In all my works, and Thee alone ; 
Thee will I love till sacred fire 
Fill my whole soul with pure desire." 

All who have come by the way of the Brazen 
Altar and Laver into the Holy Place, may, with 
the fire that has fed upon the atonement of Jesus 
in their golden censers, draw near to the Golden 
Altar and offer up " spiritual sacrifices accepta- 
ble by Jesus Christ." And may all who have 
named the blessed name of Jesus abide in the 
Holy Place where there is food and light and 
fellowship with God. 



FOURTH LECTURE. 



THE THRONE-ROOM OF JEHOVAH. 

/. The Beautiful Veil of Entranceo 
II. The A rk of the Covenant. 



THE THRONE-ROOM OF JEHOVAH. 

" Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
HOLIEST by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, 
which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to 
say, His flesh ; ... let us draw near with a true heart, in full 
assurance of faith." — Heb. 10 : 19-22. 

In this lecture we are to enter the throne-room 
of Jehovah,— the Holy of Holies. This apart- 
ment was only half as large as the Holy Place, 
being ten cubits in length, breadth, and height. 
These measurements suggest the perfections of 
the place where God's presence was manifested. 
No person was permitted to enter this sacred 
room at any time on penalty of death, except the 
High Priest, and he, only on the great Day of 
Atonement. Upon this day he passed three 
times within the veil and stood before the awful 
Presence at the Throne of Jehovah. For this an- 
nual appearance in the presence of God, he was 
required to pass through a process of ceremonial 
purification, and to clothe himself in the plain 
white garments of fine linen which represented 



90 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

unsullied holiness. It was in the Holy of Holies, 
and in connection with the typical service which 
was performed by the priest upon the occasions 
of his transit within the veil, that truths of the 
first magnitude were foreshadowed in unspeak- 
able impressiveness. We are now to give our 
attention to some of these shadows of important 
and blessed truths. 



I. The Beautiful Veil of Entrance. 

(Ex. 26: 31-35.) 

The veil known as "the beautiful veil," or, 
"the second veil," hung between the Holy Place 
and the Holiest of all. In texture and coloring it 
was similar to the gate of the court and the door 
of the tent of meeting. In distinction from these, 
however, it was interwoven with cherubic fig- 
ures, such as appeared in the linen coverings of 
the Tabernacle. Its place in this system of 
typical instruction is most important and signifi- 
cant, and will richly reward our careful consider- 
ation. 

1. The Veil was typical of our Lord's flesh. 
Very fortunately we have inspired testimony 
upon this aspect of its symbolism. " Having 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 91 

therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
way, which He hath consecrated for us, through 

THE VEIL, THAT IS TO SAY, HIS FLESH" (Heb. 

10 : 19, 20). These words of inspiration make it 
certain that the veil typified the flesh of the Lord 
Jesus,— that flesh which He assumed in order 
that He might become the Redeemer. This di- 
vine plan for redeeming the world, required, 

( 1 ) That the Redeemer have a humanity that 
was not corrupted and forfeited by the first 
Adam's spiritual, moral, and physical bank- 
ruptcy. This the Lord Jesus had. He came into 
the world without the intervention of a human 
father, and, consequently, without the sinful and 
penal inheritance that an earthly father would 
have entailed upon Him. " When the fulness of 
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made 
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4: 4, 5). This re- 
deeming work could not have been accomplished 
by Him if His own humanity had been under the 
sentence of death, as was the case with Noah, 
Job, Daniel, and all other sons of Adam. The 
miraculous birth placed Jesus in position to act 



92 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

as Redeemer for His brethren, and become the 
head, the second Adam of a new race. His phys- 
ical generation was such as to involve His com- 
munity with our humanity and at the same time 
His exemption from it. " The Word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us," but with a glory of 
grace and truth that was quite apart from our 
flesh and humanity. 

( 2 ) The Redeemer's work required that He be 
tested by the law and found blameless. Jesus 
was made under the law, and by His obedience 
to it, sin was condemned in the flesh, and the 
righteousness of the law established. He " was 
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin" (Rom. 8: 3, 4). The fine-twined linen of 
the veil foretold the blameless righteousness of 
our Lord in the flesh, and after He had tarried in 
human form until mature manhood, heaven and 
earth united in bearing testimony to His implicit 
obedience in the perfect will and law of God. 
Such Scriptures as the following bear positive 
testimony to our Lord's blamelessness : 

The Father spoke from heaven upon the oc- 
casion of His baptism, and said, " This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased " (Matt. 
3: 17). 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 93 

Peter, after he had tarried with the Master 
three years, knowing him intimately in all the 
variations of His harassing ministry, said, " Who 
did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
tnouth" (1 Pet. 2: 22). 

Pilate, after hearing many witnesses, said, " i", 
having examined Him before you, have found no 
fault in this man " ( Luke 23 : 14 ). 

Himself said, when His life's work was clos- 
ing, and the tragic scenes of His trial and death 
were casting their dark shadows across His 
pathway, " The prince of this world (the devil) 
cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14: 
30). 

There was not one spot in His holy life upon 
which Satan could place his accusing finger. He 
was justified by the law, and the only man ever 
thus justified. His resurrection was proof of 
His full justification. If the law had held any 
claim against Him for infringement of its holy 
precepts, His body could never have come forth 
from the law's prison-house into the glorious lib- 
erty and power of an endless life. 

( 3 ) To consummate redemption for mankind, 
the Redeemer was required to give His sinless 
body as an offering for sin. " We are sanctified 



94 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

through the offering of the BODY of Jesus 
Christ" (Heb. 10: 10). All the sacrifices and 
offerings for sin which preceded the cross of 
Jesus, were only f oreshadowings of his perfect 
offering. In and of themselves they had no 
redeeming value. This is why we have the ex- 
ultant words of our pre-existent Lord as He an- 
ticipated His great redemptive work : " Sacrifice 
and offering thou wouldest not, but A BODY 
HAST THOU PREPARED ME: in burnt offer- 
ings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleas- 
ure. Then said I, Lo, I come ... to do thy will, 
O God" (Heb. 10: 5-7). The way into the 
Holiest was "through the veil, that is to say, 
HIS FLESH." Christ, by offering His body as a 
sacrifice for sin, has opened heaven to believers. 
Those who fail to recognize the atoning value of 
the Saviour's mutilated body, fail to comprehend 
the penal demands of God's broken law, and the 
satisfactory price which has been submitted to 
settle its awful but just requirements. Every 
time we break the communion bread and pour 
the wine, we are supposed to express a true and 
intelligent faith in redemption through " the of- 
fering of the body of Jesus Christ ; " but if the 
symbolic service were observed only where there 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 95 

is this kind of faith, we fear that it would have to 
be discontinued in many churches. 

Those who willfully reject the mutilated body 
of the Son of God as having no atoning value, 
turn away from the only door of salvation from 
sin and its terrible penalty, and from God's un- 
speakable gift of eternal life and felicity in the 
kingdom of heaven. 

2. The Veil was identified with our Lord's 
flesh at the crucifixion, and at that time it bore 
testimony to the efficacy of His atonement. It is 
a very significant fact that when Christ's flesh 
was rent upon the cross, the veil of the temple 
which had so long represented that flesh, was 
also supernaturally rent asunder. But we are 
assured that such was the case. "Jesus, when 
He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up 
His spirit. And, behold, the veil of the temple 1 
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" 
( Matt. 27 : 50 ). I repeat, the rending of the veil 
was a very significant occurrence ; and coming 



^he temple veil, according to the Rabbis, was a hand- 
breadth in thickness and woven of seventy-two twisted 
plaits, each plait conisisting of twenty-four threads. It was 
sixty feet long and thirty wide. Two of them were made 
every year, and according to the exaggerated language of the 
time, it needed three hundred priests to manipulate it. — Dr. 
Marvin R. Vincent. 



96 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

as it did at the exact moment of the Redeemer's 
death, its significance is emphasized. The man- 
ner in which the veil was rent is also to be no- 
ticed. 

(1) It was rent from the top. Unseen hands 
grasped the hanging at its uppermost edge and 
tore it downward to the very bottom. This was 
an interpretation of our Lord's sudden death, 
" He . . . yielded up His spirit." It was a con- 
firmation of what He had said concerning His 
death when He was discoursing upon the Good 
Shepherd : " Therefore doth my Father love me, 
because I lay down my life, that I might take it 
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it 
down of myself " ( John 10 : 17, 18 ) . Jesus is for- 
ever to have the glory and praise of voluntarily 
surrendering His life for us. For this the Father 
loved Him, and for this the redeemed shall love, 
praise, and serve Him through the never-ending 
eternity. Neither men nor devils took His life 
from Him. He had the power to lay it down of 
Himself, and this power He had from above. 

(2 ) It was rent in the midst. This is the tes- 
timony of Luke 23 : 45. It opened upon the very 
throne of Jehovah. What a symbolic proclama- 
tion was this ! By the death of Jesus, God was 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 97 

propitiated, and the sinner is invited to come 
boldly to the throne of grace. "The way into 
the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest 
while the first tabernacle was yet standing" 
(Heb. 9:8). But when Jesus' death had really 
put away sin, the veil of the temple by its 
rending in the midst proclaimed that the way 
into the Holiest was made manifest. 

" The Temple veil that hour was rent in twain, 
The hour in which the Father's only Son 
With, 'It is finished,' signed His work was done, 
And by His death salvation's way made plain. 
Before this day that veil must e're remain 
Between God and His people ; only one, 
High priest of God, his duty could not shun, 
But for the nation entered, not in vain. 
Now with the Saviour's dying hour is sealed 
A ' better covenant ; ' for future days, 
The Holiest place the weak may enter in. 
The Father in the Son stands all revealed ; 
No priest, no veil, — but all can sing His praise, 
And find in Him full pardon for their sin." 

Heaven is now open to all who come to God 
by the way of the cross of His Son. 

3. Simultaneous with the rending of the flesh 
of Jesus and the veil of the temple, was the open- 
ing of many graves of the saints. The inspired 
record says: "The graves were opened; and 
many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and 



98 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

came out of the graves after His resurrection, and 
went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" 
(Matt. 27: 52, 53). This quickening of dead 
bodies was more remarkable and significant than 
the rending of the veil. It showed that Christ's 
atonement was sufficient and effectual. It pro- 
vided a sample of the finished products of the 
great redemption that was accomplished by the 
Son of God,— a sample of what is to be expected 
as the final results of His death and resurrection. 
That these resurrected bodies returned to their 
graves is not stated, and we certainly have no 
reason to believe that such was the case. Rather, 
there are good reasons for believing that they ac- 
companied our Lord to heaven as trophies of His 
redemptive triumphs, and as first-fruit samples 
of the harvest which shall be gathered from 
earth's sepulchres at the end of this age. If we 
will view the resurrection of Christ and the 
" many bodies of the saints," as the fulfillment of 
what had been long foreshadowed by one of Is- 
rael's sacred festivals, the offering of the sheaf 
of the first-fruits, we shall fully understand the 
significance of that remarkable resurrection 
which occurred at the conclusion of Christ's re- 
demptive work. In resurrection, our Lord was 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 99 

unquestionably the " first-fruits " ( 1 Cor. 15 : 20), 
but the company which followed Him forth from 
the realm of death, was his wave-sheaf. A sheaf 
implies plurality. Concerning Israel's sheaf of 
first-fruits, let me quote at length from Prof. 
Moorehead: "On the same day the passover 
was killed (Nisan 14), ' delegates marked out the 
spot in the grain field whence the sheaf of 
first-fruits was to be reaped.' On the following 
day ( Nisan 15 ), at sunset, three men were sent 
to the selected field, and, in the presence of wit- 
nesses, cut the ears of grain ( barley) before 
marked and brought them into the sanctuary. 
On the next day (Nisan 16), the third day, the 
sheaf was waved before the Lord, 'to be ac- 
cepted for you ; ' that is, it was vicarious, the de- 
votion of the whole crop to Jehovah, and the 
earnest and guaranty of the entire harvest. The 
expression, ' the morrow after the sabbath,' is 
somewhat difficult, but if it be taken in the usual 
sense, as the seventh day, then this ancient type 
of the wave-sheaf was remarkably fulfilled in the 
resurrection of Christ from the dead. For on 
Thursday of Passion Week the Passover was ob- 
served ; Friday the sheaf was cut from the field 
—the day on which Jesus was 'cutoff;' Satur- 



100 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

day (Sabbath) He lay in the tomb, and on 'the 
morrow after the sabbath* He rose from the 
dead." After His resurrection, Jesus entered 
into heaven as our Great High Priest, and the 
saints who came out of their graves when He 
was raised, were borne to heaven as His wave- 
sheaf to be presented in the presence of Jehovah 
as the earnest and pledge of the great resurrec- 
tion harvest at the end of this age. The resur- 
rection of the body is surely in the atonement. 

II. The Ark of the Covenant. 

( Ex. 25 : 1-22 ). 

We are now passing "within the veil" into 
" the place of His throne," and here we are to see 
the rationale of redemption unfolded in shadows 
which are so expressive, and, yet, so simple that 
even a child may understand and grasp the deep 
and blessed truths which they disclose. Before 
giving our attention to these, let us somewhat 
carefully consider the various articles which 
were employed as foreshadowing types. 

1. The Ark of the Covenant was the first arti- 
cle which God described and directed Moses to 
make. About this small but important chest the 
sacred building was constructed; and more or 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 101 

less directly, all of the worship, sacrifices, and 
ministries were related to it. It was the center 
of the whole system of Mosaic symbolism. In 
size it was two and a half cubits long, and a 
cubit and a half wide and high, and was made of 
acacia wood, overlaid within and without with a 
plaiting of pure gold. A " crown " or cornice of 
gold was formed round about its top into which 
the Mercy-seat closely fitted. This important 
piece of workmanship was in reality the base or 
foundation of the throne which covered it. This 
throne or Mercy-seat was essentially a part of 
the Ark, but because of its distinct and eminent 
importance it will be considered by itself later. 

2. Within the Ark were placed the Tables of the 
Covenant,— the second tables delivered to Moses. 
The first tablets were not enshrined, and were 
broken at the descent of Sinai while the great 
law-giver was bringing them into the camp. 1 
The physical disruption was only emblematic of 
the moral infraction which had already oc- 
curred. Israel had failed to keep covenant with 
Jehovah, and the approaching tables of the first 
covenant found them hilarious in a grievous and 



Ex. 32 : 19-29 : Deut. 10: 1-5. 



102 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

sinful idolatry,— dancing around a golden calf. 
The broken statutes cried out against the cove- 
nant-breakers and called for judgment which 
should satisfy justice and vindicate God's sover- 
eign righteousness. The avenging sword was 
immediately unsheathed, and about three thou- 
sand offenders fell under its retributive stroke. 
Those un-enshrined tables show us the sure ulti- 
matum of a covenant between God and men 
that has no provisions of grace; when men 
"come short" as they are sure to do, it knows 
only the administration of direct and personal 
judgment. 

" Each fault must bring its penance, 
Each sin the avenging blade, 
For God upholds in justice 
The laws that He hath made." 

Those broken tablets still lie yonder at the 
base of Sinai to administer judgment upon all 
who, rejecting the new and better covenant, 
choose to stand upon the covenant of Sinaic le- 
gality. It may minister to human pride to boast 
of a religion of good works, but who will dare to 
trust to such, if the measuring rod of God's per- 
fect law is to be laid upon earthly conduct? 
Who will dare to take an examination at the 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 103 

Great White Throne ? Some of us rejoice that 
we have found a new standing. 

" We stand upon His merit, 
We know no other ground." 

This new standing was revealed in shadow by 
the enshrining of the second tables in the Ark of 
the Covenant; they became the inscriptions of 
a New Covenant of Grace. By this enshrine- 
ment and its accompaning sacrificial ritual, God 
began to show how He could maintain His holy 
character, honor His righteous law, and still be 
gracious toward the transgressor. The fact that 
the second tables were the exact duplicates of 
the first, shows that the new covenant of grace 
was not made possible at the expense of moral 
standards. The second tables witnessed to the 
character of God as " holy, just, and good ; " to 
His law as righteous and unchangeable ; to the 
high standard of character required in those who 
were to be admitted to the Divine Presence. 
The covenant of grace was instituted that men 
might be saved from their sins, not in them. 

" Aye, Calvary stands to ransom 
The earth from sin and loss, 
In shade than light more glorious, 
The shadow of the Cross. 



104 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

To heal a sick world's trouble, 

To soothe its woe and pain, 
On Calvary's sacred summit 

The Paschal Lamb was slain." 

3. The Mercy-seat that covered the Ark and 
Tables of the Covenant. This was an oblong 
slab of pure, solid gold. 1 It served as a lid for 
the Ark, and being exactly the same length and 
breadth, it covered it perfectly, fitting closely in- 
side the golden crown which surrounded the top 
of the sacred chest. Unquestionably it is safe 
to say that the Mercy-seat was the "supreme 
feature of the Tabernacle, and of the Mosaic 
rites. It is spoken of in the Scriptures not 
simply as the lid or covering of the Ark, but as 
a distinct object, almost as if it did not belong 
to the Ark. In Leviticus 16 : 2 we have ' the 
Mercy-seat, which is upon the Ark.' In Num" 
bers 7 : 89, R. V., we read, ' And when Moses 
went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, 
then he heard the Voice speaking unto him from 
above the Mercy-seat that was upon the Ark of 
the testimony, from between the two cherubim/ 
These passages remove the Mercy-seat from 



1 The weight of such a slab would be above 750 lbs. troy, 
and its value nearly $125,000 of our money. — White. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 105 

anything like a secondary or subordinate place, 
a mere appendage of the Ark, and invest it with 
the utmost importance." ] This wonderful Seat 
was Jehovah's Throne in the Tabernacle, and as 
such it was the shadow of God's true and heav- 
enly throne, and of its relations to the redemp- 
tive scheme which has been consummated by 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the tables en- 
shrined in the Ark, and because of the sacrificial 
ritual which was performed in response to the 
demands of the enshrined tables, a two-fold 
sovereignty issued from the Throne : first, an is- 
sue of justice and judgment ; second, an issue of 
mercy and grace. These were remarkable fore- 
shadowings of the judgment at Calvary, and the 
streams of pardon, peace, and blessing which 
have flowed therefrom through all the subse- 
quent centuries. It confirms the believer's faith 
to understand just how these typical furnishings 
and ceremonies were used to shadow forth the 
deep and blessed truths of redemption. We 
shall try to get a comprehensive and orderly 
view of these shadows in their typical relations 
and movements, and to connect them with the 
truths which they were intended to foreshadow. 



Moorehead. 



106 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

(1) The sins of the people disquieted the en- 
shrined law, and provoked its condemning testi- 
mony against the transgressors; it demanded 
judgment of their sins at the hands of the en- 
throned Executive. The Ark with its enshrined 
tables of law was the foundation of the throne, a 
suggestion that God's government is founded 
upon righteous and immutable law. And in this 
is revealed the true character of sin ; all sin may 
be traced to the denial, either in will, thought, or 
action, of the supremacy of the will and sover- 
eignty of the Living God. Hence it is that sin, 
wherever found, must be challenged and pun- 
ished in the interests of the honor and perpetuity 
of the throne,— the government of Jehovah. 

In the sight of the law we have all sinned and 
come short, and it is written, " Cursed is every 
one that continueth not in all things which are 
written in the book of the law to do them " ( Gal. 
3 : 10 ). Before the law we all are condemned; 
our guilt must be judged and punished. 

(2) The sword of justice and judgment was 
placed in the hands of a representative of the 
throne, a priest, who went forth to the Brazen 
Altar to execute the righteous demands of the 
outraged law. But the penalty was death, and 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 107 

if inflicted upon the transgressors, would pre- 
clude the possibility of extending mercy and 
grace. The loving God delights in mercy, and 
if it be possible for Him to find a way to honor 
His law and at the same time save the guilty, 
He will do so. That way He has found, — but at 
tremendous cost, — and in the sacrificial offer- 
ings it was being revealed. Let us give these 
shadows our careful attention. An offering was 
brought, an animal without blemish, and after 
the sins of the people had been laid upon him in 
an impressive ceremony which indicated such a 
transference, the sword dealt him its penal and 
awful stroke, carrying into execution the de- 
mands of the lav/ and the commission of the 
throne. The animal was substitutional, and its 
death was vicarious. In turning from the shadow 
to the substance, we read : " Christ hath redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, BEING MADE A 
CURSE FOR US" (Gal. 3: 13). "The Lord 
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all " (Isa. 53 : 
6). "He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastise- 
ment of our peace was upon Him ; and with His 
stripes we are healed " ( Isa. 53 : 5). " Him who 
knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; 



108 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

that we might become the righteousness of God 
in Him " ( 2 Cor. 5 : 21, R. V. ) . No truth is more 
clearly taught in the Scriptures than that Christ 
Jesus took man's place when God judged and 
punished sin, and that His sufferings and death 
were vicarious in man's behalf. Dear friend, if 
you have not already accepted Him as your sub- 
stitute, do so without delay ! 

(3) The blood of the sin-offering was then 
carried by the High Priest into the Holy of Holies 
and sprinkled seven times upon the Ark and 
Mercy-seat. The blood was the token that the 
demands of the law had been executed; the 
seven sprinklings indicated that the offering 
was perfect and sufficient. The law was now sat- 
isfied and its condemning voice hushed. There 
remained no more condemnation to those whose 
sins had been punished and put away in the slain 
substitute, or rather, put away through their ap- 
prehension and appropriation of Calvary's com- 
ing sacrifice foreseen in their slain substitute. 
Those shadows had no virtue in and of them- 
selves ; their mission was to direct faith forward 
to Christ and His all-sufficient atonement. At 
the end of the Jewish age He appeared and " put 
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" ( Heb. 9: 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 109 

26 ). " By His own blood He entered in once into 
the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion for us" (Heb. 9: 12). His blood washes 
away all our sin, and for us answers to 
every condemning voice. " Who is he that con- 
demned ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that 
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of 
God, who also maketh intercession for us" ( Rom. 
8 : 34 ) . There can be no condemnation to those 
who are Christ's, because He has died for their 
sin, and His blood is the token at the throne of 
God. 

" His blood atoned for all the race, 
And sprinkles now the throne of grace." 

( 4 ) The blood-sprinkled throne of righteous 
judgment became the throne of righteous mercy 
and grace, — the Mercy-seat. " Mercy and truth 
are met together ; righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other " ( Psa. 85 : 10 ) . These words 
might fitly have come from the lips of the cheru- 
bim standing at each end of the Mercy-seat, gaz- 
ing in wonder upon the blood-stained throne. 
God could now be just to His holy law, and at 
the same time propitious to those who had made 
a covenant with Him by sacrifice. The law as- 
sured them that the full measure of its wrath 



110 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

had been discharged upon the sin-offering, and 
that they were invited to draw near in assurance 
and fellowship, sharing in the benefits of God's 
abounding grace. 

We have been looking at the shadow ; let us 
now turn our attention to the substance. Christ 
having received the judgment and wrath due our 
sins, has become the Mercy-seat from which 
God can deal with us in mercy and grace. Hear 
these words: "Being justified freely by His 
grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be a propitia- 
tion ( Mercy-seat ) ] through faith in His blood, 
to declare His righteousness for the remission of 
sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
God, to declare, I say, at this time His righteous- 
ness: THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST, AND THE 
JUSTIFIER OF HIM THAT BELIEVETH IN 
JESUS" (Rom. 3: 24-26). 

The Lamb of Calvary has interposed between 
the condemning law and the infinitely just and 
loving God, making peace for us. The value of 



i The Hebrew word for mercy-seat is kapporeth, ' covering,' 
and is never applied to any other than the cover of the Ark. 
In the Greek it is termed hilasterion, ' propitiatory/ and is so 
rendered in the Septuagint This is the word used in Heb. 
9 : 5, where it is translated mercy-seat. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 111 

His finished work He has carried into heaven it- 
self, up to the throne of Jehovah. 

" Now within the Holiest, 
By His own blood He stands." 

This forms the heavenly Mercy-seat, and upon 
it God reigns in righteousness, dispensing mercy 
and grace to a world of perishing mortals. " let 

US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE 
OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND 
FIND GRACE TO HELP IN EVERY TIME OF NEED" 

( Heb. 4 : 16) . To-day we have a Mercy-seat, a 
throne of grace from which we may receive 
mercy for our sinfulness, and grace to help us in 
doing the perfect will of God. To-morrow, only 
a Judgment-seat may remain for those who slight 
proffered mercy. Let there be no delay in ac- 
cepting God's unspeakable Gift, and the benefits 
of His Throne. 

" From every stormy wind that blows, 
From every swelling tide of woes, 
There is a calm, a sure retreat ; 
' Tis found beneath the Mercy-seat. 

" There is a place where Jesus sheds 
The oil of gladness on our heads, — 
A place of all on earth most sweet ; 
It is the blood-bought Mercy-seat." 



FIFTH LECTURE. 



ISRAEL'S HIGH PRIEST. 
I. Aaron's Priestly and Typical Service, 
II. Aaron's Official and Symbolic Garments. 




ISRAEL'S HIGH PRIEST. 



ISRAEL'S HIGH PRIEST. 

" An High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, unde- 
nted, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heav- 
ens." — Heb. 7 : 26. 

"We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right 
hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a minis- 
ter of the Sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle, which the 
Lord pitched, and not man." — Heb. 8 * 1, 2. 

The Priesthood was a prominent and essential 
feature in the system of Tabernacle symbolism; 
it was the only medium of communication be- 
tween the enthroned Sovereign in the Holy of 
Holies and His beloved people encamped round 
about the sacred enclosure. A priest was God's 
representative to the people, and the representa- 
tive of the people to God. He moved and min- 
istered in a realm of grace, recognizing sin, but 
operating along a divinely ordained plan for its 
removal. The office of priesthood, therefore, had 
a very definite meaning, and embraced very 
specific duties and functions. " There is a cer- 
tain literary slang abroad which talks of 'the 
priests of nature,' the 'priests of science/ and 
similar absurdities." Hugh Martin says that 



116 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

he " would as soon think of transferring the lan- 
guage of geometry and algebra to botany, and 
talk of the hypothenuse of a flower and the 
square root of a tree, or the differential co-effi- 
cient of a convolvulus, as to speak of the priest- 
hood of nature or letters." I again repeat that 
priesthood outside the realm of grace is without 
service or significance. 

Aaron, Israel's first High Priest, was the shadow 
of a Great High Priest who was yet to come ; our 
Lord Jesus is that Great High Priest. What Aaron 
was ceremonially and symbolically, Christ is in- 
trinsically and divinely. The writer of the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews says: "Holy brethren, 
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the 
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus " (Heb. 3:1). We can obey this high and 
delightful command in no better or more effec- 
tual way than by carefully studying the Aaronic 
shadow. This is what we purpose to do at this 
time. 

I. Aaron's Priestly and Typical Service. 

(Ex. 28: 1.) 

Aaron, in performing his ministry, was a pre- 
dictive shadow; every distinctive act in his 
priestly service was to have a glorious reproduc- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 117 

tion in the ministry of the Great Priest whom he 
foreshadowed. Aaron's ministry was complete 
in three acts or parts. 

1. He offered sacrifices at the Brazen Altar. 
" Every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and 
sacrifices " (Heb. 8:3). This was his primal 
act ; all other priestly functions waited for this, 
and found their significance and acceptability in 
it. 

If Christ is a High Priest, He must have of- 
fered a sacrifice. " For every high priest is or- 
dained to offer gifts and sacrifices : wherefore it 
is of necessity that this man (Christ ) have some- 
what also to offer " ( Heb. 8:3). Our Lord did 
indeed enter into His priestly office by offer- 
ing a sacrifice — HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF. 
"Once in the end of the world {al&va>v 9 ' ages') 
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of Himself" (Heb. 9: 26). This was 
Christ's first appearance in His priestly service ; 
His priesthood began at Calvary. 

The sufficiency of Calvary's sacrifice is af- 
firmed in Hebrews 10 : 11-14, where the writer 
says, " Every priest standeth daily ministering 
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, 
which can never take away sins : but this man 



118 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

(Christ), after He had offered one sacrifice 
for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of 
God ; . . . For by one offering He hath perfected 
for ever them that are sanctified." " STAND- 
ETH " - " SAT DOWN." These contrasted pos- 
tures show us how much better is the substance 
than was the shadow. Christ's "one offering" 
has forever satisfied God's righteous law, put- 
ting away the sins, and securing the eternal re- 
demption of those who are sanctified,— those 
who are set apart to Him by faith in His atoning 
sacrifice. He could "sit down" because this 
part of His work was forever finished. 

2. Aaron ministered in the Holy Places. After 
completing the offering at the Brazen Altar, he 
passed within the Tabernacle where he per- 
formed a twofold ministry: first, he presented 
the blood of the sin offering before the Lord in 
the Holy of Holies, sprinkling the Ark and Mercy- 
seat seven times, thus fully satisfying its right- 
eous demands; then, with fragrant incense, he 
returned to the Golden Altar in the Holy Place, 
and in behalf of the people, he offered prayers 
and intercessions, claiming for them the full 
measure of blessing and benefits secured by the 
atoning sacrifice. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 119 

How beautifully typical was all this of our 
Great High Priest's ministry in the true Taber- 
nacle! After offering Himself at Calvary, He 
entered, not " into the holy places made with 
hands, which are the figures of the true, but into 
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence 
of God for us" (Heb. 9: 24). This was His 
second appearing in His priestly service ; first, 
He appeared at Calvary to "put away sin by 
the sacrifice of Himself ; " then He appeared " in 
the presence of God FOR US." 

( 1 ) For us He presented His atoning blood at 
the throne of God in heaven. " For us " is the 
inspired key that unlocks the mystery of the Re- 
deemer's heavenly ministry. When he came as a 
priest to Calvary, He came as God's representa- 
tive to men, and in the righteous vindication of 
Jehovah's sovereignty, He smote sin. But whom 
did He smite ? Not men, but Himself. When 
He returned to heaven, He went there as a man, 
the divine man, and as man's representative to 
God, bearing before the throne the token of sin's 
righteous punishment,— His own Precious Blood. 
With " His own blood He entered in once into 
the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion for us" (Heb. 9: 12). "FOR US;" all 



120 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

praise to God's unspeakable grace! His blood 
fully answers to the condemning law, and satis- 
fies all its claims against believers. " There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them which 
are in Christ Jesus " ( Rom. 8:1). 

" Jesus, our Great High Priest, 

Has shed His blood and died ; 
Our guilty conscience needs 

No sacrifice beside : 
His precious blood did once atone, 
And now it pleads before the Throne." 

(2) For us He ever liveth to make interces- 
sion in the presence of God. We are not to in- 
fer from this that God needs to be coaxed into an 
attitude of graciousness toward the children of 
men,— that His favor toward those who have ac- 
cepted His Son as Saviour is thus secured and 
retained. It may be that some have thus slan- 
derously represented the loving Father, but let us 
hope that the number is not large. God the 
Father and God the Son are one, and in nothing 
is their perfect oneness more unquestionable 
than in their devotion to the great undertaking 
of human redemption. As intercessor, Jesus is 
in the presence of God as man's representative, 
and, being a man, He is qualified to act in man's 
behalf. " Every high priest taken from among 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 121 

men is ordained for men in things pertaining to 
God" (Heb.5: 1). 

{a) Jesus is qualified to present man's one 
and only satisfying answer to the judicial in- 
quiry of God's righteous but outraged law. 
This is why Jesus has met God in the heavens 
as our intercessor. With " His own blood He en- 
tered " the Throne-room of Jehovah, and there 
He pleads its merits as the sufficient answer for 
all our sins, past, present, and future. It was 
this conception of the Intercessor's heavenly 
ministry which led Saint Paul to fling wide his 
confident and mighty challenge : " Who shall lay 
any thing to the charge of God's elect? . . . Who 
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, 
yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at 
the right hand of God, who maketh intercession 
for us "(Rom. 8: 33,34). 

( b ) Jesus is qualified to present the believer's 
plea for continual clemency and compassion. 
On the ground of accomplished redemption He 
presents the plea for clemency. He ever lives to 
present His blood for every sin that we may com- 
mit. " If any man sin, we have an advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous " ( 1 John 
2:1). It is because of the eternal efficacy of 



122 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

His atonement that He is able to keep in perpet- 
ual fellowship and peace those who seek and 
trust His intercession. " He is able to save them 
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, 
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for 
them" (Heb. 7: 25). "To the uttermost" 
(efc to TravreXk) —completely; and forever, be- 
cause he ever liveth. On the ground of His 
common humanity He is able to present the plea 
for compassion. " He took not on Him the na- 
ture of angels ; but he took on Him the seed of 
Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved 
Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He 
might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in 
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation 
for the sins of the people " ( Heb. 2 : 16, 17) . It 
is His humanity that enables our blessed Re- 
deemer to perfectly and sympathetically inter- 
pret to the Godhead, our human weaknesses and 
failures ; and it is because of this interpretation 
that — 



There's no place where earthly sorrows 
Are more felt than up in Heaven ; 

There's no place where earthly failings 
Have such kindly judgment given." 






OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 123 

( c ) Jesus, by virtue of His priestly office, is 
authorized to receive for His redeemed people 
the further gifts and blessings to which His 
atonement and perfections of manhood and of- 
ficial character entitle them. "When He as- 
cended up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men " ( Eph. 4:8). Before His 
passion, He told His disciples that the coming of 
the Comforter depended upon His going to the 
Father, and after he had taken up His priestly 
intercession in heaven, the Holy Spirit came 
upon the disciples. During all the years since, 
the gifts of spiritual power, grace, and blessing 
have been falling upon the Church. "He that 
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up 
for us all, how shall He not also freely give us 
all things?" (Rom. 8: 32.) I will not attempt 
to enumerate the " all things," but will say that 
whatever can help us in our work for the Mas- 
ter, and in our journey God- ward and heaven- 
ward, will be freely bestowed through the 
Beloved One, if we will but make it possible by 
putting ourselves in the receptive attitude. 

3. After completing his ministry in the Holy 
Places, Aaron returned to the Court to bless the 



124 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

people. 1 As he appeared to the throng who 
were watching for his return, he " lifted up his 
hands— the very hands that had been wet with 
blood —and blessed the people. It was as if he 
was pouring over them all the grace and peace 
that flow from the blood of Jesus." 2 The follow- 
ing words of blessing were probably used at this 
time: 

" The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; 
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, 

and be gracious unto thee ; 
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace " ( Num. 6 : 24-26 ) . 

With the conclusion ot the blessing, "the glory 
of the Lord appeared upon all the people," and 
their acceptance by Him was indicated by the 
fire that came forth and consumed the burnt- 
offering upon the Brazen Altar. If it be true 
that every act in Aaron's priestly service is to be 
reproduced in the ministry of our Great High 
Priest, then we must expect Jesus to reappear, 
and with hands uplifted, pronounce a blessing 
upon His waiting and watching people. And so 



'Lev. 9: 22-24; cf. Num. 6: 22-27; Deut.21: 5; 1 Chron. 
23 : 13. 

2 Bonar. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 125 

we read : " Christ was once offered to bear the 
sins of many : and unto them that look for Him 
shall He appear the second time without sin (sin- 
offering ) unto salvation " ( Heb. 9 : 28 ). This 
is His third appearance in His priestly service, 
but His second appearing to His people. First, 
He appeared in the sight of men to " put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself; " then He disap- 
peared from men to appear " in the presence of 
God for us ; " at some time in] the future, " unto 
them that look for Him shall He appear the sec- 
ond time." To get the full meaning of these 
words, we need to understand that on the Day 
of Atonement the people waited outside the 
Court until Aaron should finish his ministry in 
the Holy Places and come forth to bless them. 
In like manner, the true Church has never, since 
the priestly Christ ascended from Olivet, ceased 
to wait for His return from heaven to bless 
them. Then, as in the case of Aaron, " the glory 
of the Lord " will appear upon all His people ; 
their wilderness trials and sorrows will be for- 
gotten amid the joys that His presence will bring 
them. But will He really come with His hands 
uplifted in blessing ? Listen : " He led them out 
as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His 






126 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

HANDS, AND BLESSED THEM. And it Came tO 

pass, that while He blessed them, He was parted 
from them, and carried up into heaven " ( Luke 
24: 50, 51 ). This makes it very certain that 
our Lord left this earth while in the act of bless- 
ing His disciples, — His people. Now listen 
again: "And, while they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men 
stood by them in white apparel ; which also said, 
. . . This same Jesus, which is taken up from 
you into heaven, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE 
MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO 
HEAVEN " ( Acts 1 : 10, 11 ). He will then cer- 
tainly come with His hands uplifted in blessing, 
for this was the way He went to heaven, 
" Even so, come, Lord Jesus," is the prayer of all 
who truly love Him, and to them he will bring a 
crown of righteousness, for such a crown He has 
for all those " WHO LOVE HIS APPEARING." 

II. Aaron's Official and Symbolic 

Garments. 

( Ex. 28 : 2-42.) 

The High Priest's garments " for glory and for 
beauty, " were made according to Divine appoint- 
ment. God said unto Moses, "Thou shalt speak 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 127 

unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled 
with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make 
Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may 
minister unto me in the priest's office " (Ex. 28 : 
3). This priestly wardrobe consisted of six 
pieces, namely, a broidered coat, the robe of the 
ephod, the ephod, a breastplate, a girdle, and a 
miter. These beautiful and expensive articles of 
dress were appointed, not because God is partic- 
ularly interested in ecclesiastical robes and 
finery, but because He wished Aaron to become 
symbolically more than he actually was ; by these 
garments he was to foreshadow the personal and 
official excellencies of his Divine Successor,— 
the Christ. We will briefly consider each piece, 
and in the probable order in which they were 
placed upon Aaron at his consecration. 

1. The Embroidered Coat This was the first 
of the " beautiful garments," and was worn next 
to the person. 1 It differed from other similar 
garments in that it was richly embroidered. 
The fine linen of which the coat was made, spoke 
of righteousness; the embroidery upon it, de- 



J The linen breeches were worn under the coat, and were 
distinguished from the garments which were " for glory and 
for beauty." See Ex. 28 : 42, 43. 



128 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

clared that it was a righteousness quite unlike 
and apart from the righteousness of all others. 
The thoughtful student cannot fail to here recog- 
nize a simple but luminous type of the personal 
purity and righteousness of our Great High Priest, 
Christ Jesus, concerning whom it is written: 
"Such an High Priest became us, who is holy, 
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." In 
our mind there is no doubt that God had this 
typical purpose in the embroidered linen coat. 
Indirectly, it may have been typical of the bridal 
linen of the Lamb's wife. We read that " to her 
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine 
linen, clean and white : for the fine linen is the 
righteousness of saints" (Rev. 19: 8). The 
righteousness in which the saints are to be wor- 
thily attired when they are presented to the King 
Eternal as the " glorious church, not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing," will, unquestion- 
ably, be the imputed righteousness of the Re- 
deemer,— His incomparable worthiness shall be 
their "glorious dress." The assurance, how- 
ever, that we shall be clothed for that occasion 
in a beauteous heavenly dress, freely provided by 
His abounding grace, must never encourage 
carelessness in our daily and constant endeavor 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 129 

to put on the "fine linen" of His holy life, the 
beautiful features of heavenly character which 
so become those who profess to be His, and who 
entertain the hope of eternal companionship with 
Him in the whiteness of heaven's glory. Let all 
who have this hope, purify themselves, " even as 
He is pure." 

2. The Robe of the Ephod. This garment was 
placed over the embroidered coat, and received 
its name from the ephod which was worn upon 
it. It was of a blue color, reaching nearly to the 
bottom of the linen coat, and is said to have been 
seamless, woven throughout in one piece, like 
our Lord's seamless coat. 

Upon the hem around the skirt were placed 
pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, alter- 
nated with bells of gold. " A golden bell and a 
pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, 
upon the hem of the robe round about " (Ex. 28 : 
34) . The pomegranates symbolized f ruitf ulness, 
and the bells were for testimony. It was said 
that the robe should be upon Aaron to minister, 
that his sound should "be heard when he goeth 
into the holy place before the Lord, and when 
he cometh out, that he die not." 

It has been affirmed by some that the golden 



130 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

bells "were to proclaim to the people without the 
Tabernacle the glad fact that their High Priest 
was alive, and appearing on their behalf before 
the golden mercy-seat. A glance, however, 
at Lev. 16 : 2-4, will show that when the High 
Priest of Israel 'passed the veil, and faced the 
mercy-seat/ no sounding bells were heard. On 
every such occasion he was attired in garments 
of plain linen only. Sweet as was the sound of 
the golden bells, there was yet a sweeter sound to 
Him who dwelt between the cherubim upon the 
mercy-seat,— the sound of the atoning blood. 
Its seven-tongued voice was alone heard beyond 
the veil. Then it is not said that Aaron's 
sound shall be heard that ' Israel's sons ' might 
know that he was not dead, but ' that he (Aaron 
himself) die not.' In other words, that the same 
doom befall him not which would surely over- 
take an ordinary priest were he to venture into 
the Tabernacle while atonement was being 
made. The sound of the golden bells would dis- 
tinguish Aaron from such." 1 The waiting peo- 
ple may have heard the bells of their High 
Priest as he ministered at the golden altar, and 



White. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 131 

if they did, the sound was to them a blessed tes- 
timony that he still lived and served in their be- 
half. The priestly service of Aaron and his suc- 
cessors was certainly not without its fruitage 
and testimony for Israel. 

There are pomegranates and bells on the ce- 
lestial vestments of Jesus, our Priest in the 
glory. He is performing a gracious ministry 
which bears both fruit and testimony. It was 
after He had presented His atoning blood at the 
throne of God, and, in His garments "for glory 
and for beauty," had assumed His ministry at 
the " golden altar which is before the throne," 1 
that the following bit of history was written: 
" Therefore being by the right hand of God ex- 
alted, and having received of their Father the 
promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth 
this, which ye now SEE and HEAR " (Acts 2 : 
33) . Those witnesses saw and heard the fruit and 
testimony, the pomegranates and golden bells, of 
His heavenly ministry. But we need not go 
back to Pentecost to " see" and " hear ; " history 
of the same kind has been making through the 
succeeding years. His fruitage has made glad 



See Rev. 8 : 4. 



132 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

myriads of human souls, and His bells have rung 
their joyful music through the centuries, tell- 
ing believers that their High Priest ever liveth 
to minister for them. Their golden-tongued 
message is heard in all the world at this very 
hour. 

3. The Ephod. Placed next, and over the 
blue robe, was the magnificent and costly ephod. 
It was a short garment, made in two pieces, one 
for the front and the other for the back, con- 
nected at the shoulders by "pieces" or straps, 
and at the bottom by a band or hem. The ma- 
terial was of linen, and was richly embroidered 
with blue, purple, and scarlet, having threads of 
gold skilfully interwoven throughout its entire 
texture. "They did beat the gold into thin 
plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the 
blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in 
the fine linen, with cunning work" (Ex. 39: 3). 
The gold spoke of Deity; the blue, the purple, 
and scarlet were the heavenly, royal, and sac- 
rificial colors, all of which find their full and in- 
tended significance in the personal and official 
excellencies of our Lord Jesus as High Priest. 

Probably the most important feature of the 
ephod was the two onyx gems which were set in 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 133 

gold and attached to the shoulder-pieces. Con- 
cerning these the Lord commanded Moses as 
follows: "Thou shalt take two onyx stones, 1 
and grave on them the names of the children of 
Israel : six of their names on one stone, and the 
other six names of the rest on the other stone, 
according to their birth. With the work of an 
engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, 
shalt thou engrave the two stones with the 
names of the children of Israel : thou shalt make 
them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou 
shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of 
the ephod for stones of memorial unto the chil- 
dren of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their 

NAMES BEFORE THE LORD UPON HIS TWO 
SHOULDERS FOR A MEMORIAL" (Ex. 28: 9-12). 

In this representative way, the twelve tribes were 
borne upon Aaron's shoulders (the place of 
strength) into the presence of Jehovah. And 
when he offered prayer at the golden altar, the 
nation withits burden of care and need was sup- 
posed to rest upon him, and by him was lifted 
up before the Lord to be remembered and en- 



1 These are thought to have been sardonyx stones, the best 
kind of onyx, having three layers, black, white, and red, in- 
stead of two, black and white only. 



134 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

riched with His sovereign compassion and be- 
neficence. But it was only representatively that 
all this was done. Aaron could not bear the bur- 
dens of a wayward and foolish nation upon his 
shoulders. There is only one Priest who can in 
reality assume all the burdens of all His people, 
— the Priest, Christ Jesus. Of Him the prophet 
Isaiah wrote, "The government shall be upon 
His shoulder," and to care-burdened believers, 
Saint Peter wrote, " Casting all your care upon 
Him ; for He careth for you." Oh, fellow Chris- 
tians! may we never forget that He who bore 
our sins upon the tree, now lives in heaven to 
take upon His strong shoulders all our earthly 
burdens if we will but surrender them to Him. 
There is little doubt that if both individuals and 
churches would cast their burdens upon Him,— 
their spiritual burdens, financial burdens, all 
their burdens,— they would be able to testify to 
wonderful deliverances. Weary ones, why do 
you struggle with burdens too heavy for you to 
bear, when Jehovah hath laid upon the Mighty 
Saviour, help, — help for you and for me, help for 
all who come unto God through Him. Great is 
the joy of those who feel His arms taking them 
up,— themselves, their burdens, their all. " Even 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 135 

to your old age I am He ; and even to hoar hairs 
will I carry you : I have made, and I will bear ; 
even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isa. 
46.4). 

4. The Breastplate. This beautiful creation 
was of the same material and workmanship as 
the ephod. "Thou shalt make the breastplate of 
judgment with cunning work; after the work 
of the ephod thou shalt make it ; of gold, of blue, 
and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine-twined 
linen, shalt thou make it" (Ex. 28 : 15). It was 
made a double square, then folded so as to form 
a square pouch, a receptacle perhaps for the 
Urim and Thummim, whatever these may have 
been. To the front of this linen pouch were at- 
tached the gold settings of the precious stones 
upon which the names of the twelve tribes had 
been engraved. There were four rows of these, 
with three settings in a" row. The stones, and 
probably the names of the tribes, were in the or- 
der shown upon the representation of the breast- 
plate on the following page. 

In the illustration we have followed the He- 
brew method of reading, from right to left, and 
this gives Judah the place of honor as the royal 
tribe. 



136 



TABERNACLE SHADOWS 



5 






JASPER t || 
NAPHTALI. 



j ^^^^ g 







THE BREASTPLATE. 



The breastplate was kept in place by wreathen 
chains of gold extending from its upper cor- 
ners to the gold settings on the shoulder-pieces, 
and by gold rings at the lower corners bound 
with blue lace to corresponding rings on the 
ephod. Thus Israel was held securely upon 
their High Priest's heart (the place of affection) 
while he ministered in the holy place. It was 
commanded that Aaron should " bear the names 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 137 

of the children of Israel in the breastplate of 
judgment UPON HIS HEART, when he goeth 
in unto the holy place, for a memorial before 
the Lord continually " (Ex. 28 : 29). Thus by 
Aaron's jewels Israel was given a double repre- 
sentation; first, by the onyx stones upon his 
shoulders, and again, by the breastplate upon 
his heart. Blessed shadows are these of bur 
High Priest's strength and love which are en- 
gaged on behalf of His people while He is minis- 
tering in the holy places not made with hands. 
What could be more comforting to His toiling 
and afflicted children while He is absent from 
them than the thought that they rest in con- 
tinual and affectionate remembrance upon His 
heart? 

"O Christ, Thou hast ascended; 

But canst Thou, Lord, forget 
The little band who love Thee 

And gaze from Olivet ? 
Nay ; on Thy breast engraven 

Thou bearest every name, 
Our Priest in earth and heaven 

Eternally the same." 

5. The Girdle. The description of this part 
of the High Priest's investiture is so limited that 
nothing very definite can be said of it. If it be 
true, as some have said, that " it was only put 



138 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

on during actual ministration, and put off imme- 
diately afterwards," it gives especial significance 
to Saint John's vision of the Saviour '' in the 
midst of the seven golden candlesticks girt about 
with a golden girdle." It would suggest that 
our High Priest in heaven is engaged in actual 
ministry for His people. And if he is actively 
working for his people during His absence, they 
ought to read with new interest and a deeper 
sense of their meaning, the Master's words im- 
portuning them to gird themselves as workers 
and watchers. " Let your loins be girded about, 
and your lights burning ; and ye yourselves like 
unto men that wait for their lord, when he will 
return from the wedding ; that when he cometh 
and knocketh, they may open unto him imme- 
diately" (Luke 12: 35,36). A girded Priest in 
heaven and a girded Church on earth is the Di- 
vine ideal. 

6. The Miter and Golden Plate. Of all the 
parts of the High Priest's dress, none are more 
interesting and significant than the covering for 
the head with its golden frontlet. The miter 
was made of fine white linen, intended to indi- 
cate, probably, that God's High Priest was 
crowned with purity and righteousness. To the 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 139 

miter was attached a plate of pure gold upon 
which was engraved a wonderful inscription. 
The following directions given to Moses con- 
cerning the plate, are very clear and instructive : 
" Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave 
upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLI- 
NESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it 
on a blue lace, that it may be upon the miter; 
upon the forefront of the miter it shall be. And 
it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron 

MAY BEAR THE INIQUITY OF THE HOLY THINGS, 

which the children of Israel shall hallow in all 
their holy gifts ; and it shall be always upon his 
forehead, that they may be accepted be- 
fore the Lord" (Ex. 28: 36-38). Please give 
careful attention to the following excerptions 
from the foregoing quotation : 

(1) " Holiness to the Lord." Surely these 
words, gleaming upon Aaron's brow, proclaimed 
more than Aaron ever became, or ever could be- 
come, personally or officially. Holiness to the 
Lord is the sum total of God's perfect character 
and law. No earthly priest has ever been this. 
But "we have such an High Priest, who is set on 
the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the 
heavens" (Heb. 8: 1). Angels prostrate them- 



140 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

selves at the feet of the adorable Christ and cry, 
"Holy, holy, holy." 

(2) "That Aaron may bear the iniquity 
of the holy things, . . . that they may 
be accepted before the Lord." Figuratively, 
Aaron did this ; actually, he could not bear even 
his own iniquity, but had to offer sacrifices for 
" his own sins " as well as for the sins of the 
people. Jesus, because of His absolute holiness, 
and because of His one perfect offering for sins, 
now lives in heaven to bear, to stand responsi- 
ble for, the iniquity of His holy children. Note 
the inspired words: "The iniquity of the holy 
things." It does not say unholy things. The 
taint of sin and imperfection mars the holiest 
words, works, and gifts of God's holiest people, 
and those who have not been blinded by false 
doctrine and vain glory are always ready to 
confess this, but they are ever praising God for 
their High Priest, who, in His priestly service, 
bears their iniquity and secures their continual 
acceptance before God. We are, "accepted in 
the Beloved " (Eph. 1:6). Oh, let us get for- 
ever away from self -admiration, and spend the 
rest of our time in appreciating Jesus, " Who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 141 

and sanctification, and redemption : that, accord- 
ing as it is written, he that glorieth, let him 
glory in the Lord " (1 Cor. 1 : 30, 31). 

" Jesus, in Thee our eyes behold 
A thousand glories more, 
Than the rich gems and polished gold 
The sons of Aaron wore." 



SIXTH LECTURE. 



THE COMMON PRIESTS. 

/. The Call to the Priestly Office. 

II. The Ritual Prescribed for the Priestly Con- 
secration. 

III. The Associated Ministry of the Com- 
mon Priests. 




A COMMON PRIEST. 



THE COMMON PRIESTS. 

" Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy- 
nation, a peculiar people." — 1 Peter 2 : 9. 

Aaron was not the solitary incumbent of the 
priestly office. Associated with him were sev- 
eral other consecrated ministrants who were 
known as the common or regular priests. To 
God, Aaron alone was known in the priestly 
office, the ministry of the common priests being 
acceptable to Him only because they ministered 
in the name and appointed service of their head, 
—Jehovah's only recognized and responsible 
priest. In studying the priestly associates of 
Aaron, important typical truths are to be recog- 
nized. We have already learned that the high 
priest was a shadow of Christ ; now we are go- 
ing to assume, until we have considered typical 
evidences, that the common priests were Di- 
vinely appointed shadows of Christian Believers. 



146 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

No one will question our interpretation of Saint 
Peter's words when we say that it was his fel- 
lows in Christian service whom he addressed as 
"a royal priesthood." That this " royal priest- 
hood" referred to by Peter was foreshadowed 
by the common priests associated with Aaron, 
will appeal to us as very certain, after we have 
carefully considered the evidences which are 
now to be presented. 

I. The Call to the Priestly Office. 

(Ex. 28:1.) 

The call of the common priests came from 
God. The Lord said unto Moses, " Take thou 
unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with 
him, from among the children of Israel, that he 
may minister unto me in the priest's office, even 
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, 
Aaron's sons " (Ex. 28 : 1) . In this selection and 
call you will be impressed with the following 
truths : 

1. The Common Priests were Chosen IN 
Aaron. "Take thou unto thee Aaron . . . and his 
sons with him. " They were selected because of 
their relation to the high priest. This fact was 
not without intended typical significance. It 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 147 

foreshadowed an election which was to be made, 
indeed which was already being made, in and 
for the sake of another. Saint Paul leads us 
into the glorious truth thus shadowed forth 
when he says, " Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who . . . hath chosen 
us IN HIM before the foundation of the world " 
(Eph. 1 : 3, 4) . Thinkers are perplexed and be- 
wildered as they reflect upon the doctrine of 
foreordination and election which they find in 
the Scriptures. Believers, however, accept the 
doctrine, and in the illumination of such types 
as the one now before us, it is seen to be in per- 
fect agreement with the blessed "whosoever 
will " proclamation which is heard like a trump- 
et's voice through all the messages of the New 
Testament, while symbolism like what we are 
now considering is only an echo of this voice re- 
verberating backward through the corridors of 
Old Testament revelation. Whosoever will by 
faith receive God's Son as Saviour and Lord, 
shall at once receive a call and the bestowment 
of power to become a member of the priestly 
family of the Great High Priest, and he shall at 
once become a minister in the "royal priest- 
hood " of the new covenant of grace. Indeed, 



148 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

God's call has gone forth to all men, but He 
chooses only those who choose His Son. It is 
through faith in Christ Jesus that men are 
elected to sonship in the family of God and a 
place of ministry in the " royal priesthood." 

2. The Priests were Chosen to a Separated 
Life. They were taken " from among the chil- 
dren of Israel." We shall get the full meaning 
of this statute of separation if we read Numbers 
18:20. "The Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou 
shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither 
shalt thou have any part among them." Does 
this seem unjustly severe? Are we inclined to 
think that their priesthood was an impoverish- 
ment of their lives? It was not. If we have re- 
ceived such an impression it is because we have 
failed to hear God to the end of what He said 
concerning their priestly heritage. The quota- 
tion from Numbers ends with these words: 
"I AM THY PART AND THINE INHER- 
ITANCE." You see there is another side to this 
question ; there is more than just deprivation of 
some things which others enjoy. "/ am thy 
part." God more than compensates for all the 
limitations and impoverishments imposed by 
His will and service. When we come to con- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 149 

sider the new covenant call to priesthood, we 
find the summons to separation and the same 
promised heritage, — God giving Himself to His 
separated ones in the blessed relationship of 
Fatherhood. " Come out from among them, and 
be ye separate, saith the Lord, . . . and I will 
receive you, and will be a Father unto you" 
(2 Cor. 6 : 17, 18) . We may believe that one very 
potent reason why many Christians are failing 
to realize the parental nearness and fellowship 
of the heavenly Father, is because they are fail- 
ing to separate themselves from all sin and 
worldliness unto Him. So long as there is fail- 
ure at this point, experience will fall short of its 
promised heritage in Deity. 

3. Israel's Priests were Called to an Holy 
Service. "Minister unto me in the priest's 
office." This was why they were called to the 
separated life,— that their thoughts, time, and 
energies might be conserved for their holy min- 
istry. Young Christians are sometimes told by 
their instructors that they will be required to 
give up only those things which are harmful and 
wrong. This is rather misleading,— it is not ex- 
actly true. Efficiency in Christian service will 
require the surrender of many things which in 



150 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

and of themselves are very good, but they keep 
the disciple from measuring up to his best in the 
Master's service. This is a sufficient reason for 
giving them up. It is impossible to determine 
our duty as Christians, by the single and simple 
question, Is this right or is this wrong? We 
shall need to go further and ask, Will this take 
time, thought, money, and energy which ought 
to be given to the Lord's work? " Ye . . . are 
... an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual 
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ " 
(1 Pet. 2:5). Spiritual employment is God's 
supreme purpose in each and all of His children. 
Much that passes for church work, such as 
many of the social and entertaining activities to 
which almost entire congregations are surren- 
dered, is, to speak as generously of such en- 
deavors as possible, but very remotely connected 
with the spiritual and priestly service to which 
the Lord has called His people. Something 
must be wrong when this side of Christian 
work, if indeed we can be justified in calling it 
such, takes so much of the time and energy of 
the saints that they with consenting consciences 
can excuse themselves from enlisting in any of 
the distinctively spiritual and evangelistic en- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 151 

deavors of their church. For the want of work- 
ers — spiritual workers — too little of this kind 
of work is being done in most of our churches. 
Let us remember that like the priests of old all 
Christians are called to holy service for God and 
mankind. 

II. The Ritual Prescribed for Priestly 
Consecration. 

(Lev. 8:1-36.) 

A protracted and very significant series of 
ceremonials, strikingly typical from first to last, 
attended the consecration of the priests. Aaron 
accompanied his sons in the consecration, thus 
emphasizing the truth that they had their of- 
ficial standing in him. In important parts of 
the ritual, however, Aaron preceded his sons. 
This was done, not so much as a recognition of 
his pre-eminence in the priesthood, as to ac- 
curately foreshadow fundamental distinctions 
and truths which should be recognized in the 
Redeemer's introductory work. Dr. A. J. Gor- 
don used to say that the types of the Bible are 
as accurate as mathematics. A confirmation of 
this statement will be found later when we 
come to consider that which we have just now 



152 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

hinted at. Brief attention given to the several 
acts or parts in the consecration service will re- 
veal their typical instructions. 

1. The Ceremonial Washing with Water. 
This was the first act in the consecration exer- 
cises, and was probably performed at the laver 
before the door of the Tabernacle. It symboli- 
cally indicated the putting away of all defile- 
ment from those who were to serve in the 
priestly office. It was absolutely indispensable 
that they should be ceremonially clean. Their 
washing was God's protest against moral and 
spiritual uncleanness. God cannot in any de- 
gree approve or excuse sin. The laver, how- 
ever, was more than God's protest, it was His 
symbol of the grace by which He would save 
His people from their sins. Those washed 
priests were intended to foreshadow the be- 
lievers who should become a spiritual and 
"royal priesthood" "by the washing (Xovrpov, 
— ' laver') of regeneration" (Titus 3: 5). The 
priestly washing did not symbolize baptism, as 
some have taught, but regeneration by the Holy 
Spirit. Baptism is the " answer of a good con- 
science toward God," also the believer's declara- 
tion to the world that regeneration has taken 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 153 

place and a new life received and to be lived. 
How then can this ordinance be properly admin- 
istered to those who are too young to have ex- 
perienced regeneration, and consequently have 
no religious " conscience " to be expressed ? We 
do not see how careful students of the word can 
still hold to a practice which grew out of the un- 
believable doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 

2. The Investiture after the Washing at the 
Laver. The holy garments of the common 
priests were very simple indeed. They were 
made of fine linen, and consisted of coats, re- 
sembling the embroidered coat of the high 
priest, girdles, and bonnets or turbans. There 
was no embroidery, no beautiful colors, no threads 
of gold, no flashing jewels for the shoulders or 
breast, no plates of gold to glitter upon the fore- 
front of their turbans. The simpler dress of 
the common priests told of their subordinate 
position. The absence of decorations for the 
shoulders and breast had its compensation, how- 
ever, for it told of freedom from burdens of care 
and responsibility. The high priest took all the 
official burdens of his priestly family. In like 
manner our Lord desires to carry all the burdens 
of His beloved followers, — His priestly family. 



154 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

O Christian! have you yet learned to cast all 
your care upon your Redeemer and Lord? 

3. The Sacrificial Offerings and the Applica- 
tion of the Blood. At the consecration of the 
priests a full course of sacrificial offerings was 
observed. This part of the ceremony began by 
the bringing of a bullock for a sin-offering, and 
upon its head Aaron and his sons laid their 
hands. This signified identification with their 
offering, and as it was a sin-offering it meant the 
confession of sins. The bullock was then slain, 
indicating that their sins were punished and put 
away. Next, a ram for a burnt-offering was pre- 
sented, and after the priests had laid their hands 
upon its head, it was slain. This was an " offer- 
ing of a sweet savor unto the Lord." It meant 
that their sins having been put away they were 
now acceptable unto Jehovah. After this, the 
ram of consecration was brought, the laying of 
the priest's hands upon its head was repeated, 
and it was slain. Identification with this beast 
was a pledge of consecration. Moses then took 
of its blood and put it upon the right ears, the 
thumbs of the right hands, and the great toes of 
the right feet of all the priests. This sealed 
their covenant, and signified that henceforth they 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 155 

were to hear the word of the Lord rather than 
the voices of the world; their hands were to 
labor for the prosperity of Jehovah's cause rather 
than to serve the interests of self; their feet 
were to go in the ways of holy service, even 
though those ways took them to the ends of the 
earth, rather than to go in their own ways of 
pleasure and worldly ambition. This can hardly 
fail to remind believers of the exclamation and 
question with which Saint Paul probed the con- 
sciences of the Corinthian Christians. "What! 
know ye not that ... ye are not your own? for 
ye are bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20). 
That redemptive price was neither silver or gold, 
but "the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1: 
18, 19). As the sin-offering and burnt-offering 
were supplemented with the ram of consecration, 
bringing the whole life and service of Israel's 
priests under the sign and dominion of the con- 
secration blood, so those who have accepted 
Jesus as their sin-bearer and sweet-savor-offering 
before the Lord, should hasten to recognize and 
honor the claims of His consecrating blood, and 
fully and gladly abandon themselves to His holy 
service. They should say with the fullest sin- 
cerity, 



156 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

" Take my life, and let it be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee ; 
Take my hands and let them move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 

" Take my feet, and let them be 
Swift and beautiful for Thee ; 
Take my voice and let me sing 
Always, only, for my King. 



*' Take my love, — my Lord, I pour 
At Thy feet its treasure-store ! 
Take myself, and I will be 
Ever, only, ALL for Thee ! " 

4. The Anointing of Aaron's Sons. Aaron 
had received his anointing before the sacrifices 
were offered. He was a type of the Lord Jesus 
who needed no shedding of blood to put away 
His sins and make Him ready for His anointing. 
But Aaron's sons typified the followers of Christ 
who are not ready for anointing until they have 
been stained with the blood, even the blood of 
consecration. How true the shadows were to 
what actually took place when the Substance of 
ail those Aaronic shadows appeared to fulfill the 
types and all righteousness ! Years before the 
cross, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. 
At His baptism the Spirit descended upon Him 
in visible and dove-like form, and with the Spirit's 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 157 

coming, the Father's voice was heard bearing 
approving witness to Jesus as His beloved Son. 
But the disciples of Jesus, the antitypes of Aaron's 
sons, did not receive the anointing of the Holy 
Spirit until after the Redeemer had offered Him- 
self at Calvary, ascended into heaven, presented 
His blood before the throne of God, and in the 
beautiful garments of His High Priesthood had 
taken up His intercessory ministrations at the 
golden altar in the heavenly sanctuary. 1 When 
the day of Pentecost had fully come, and the 
disciples were waiting in obedient and full sur- 
render to the will and command of the Master, 2 
the Spirit came and rested upon each of them. 
Peter affirms that what occurred at that time 
was the glorious fruitage of the Lord's death, 
resurrection, and exaltation in the glory. " Be- 
ing by the right hand of God exalted, and having 
received of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now 
see and hear" (Acts 2: 33). The Holy Spirit 
could not come as the antitypical anointing 
upon the disciples until the antitypical consecra- 
tion offering in its all-inclusive fullness had been 



1 John saw a golden altar in heaven. — Rev. 8 : 3. 

2 Luke 24: 49. 



158 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

accomplished, and Jesus, decorated in all the in- 
signia of His High Priestly office, had been actu- 
ally accepted in the glory. Our Lord told His 
disciples that unless He went away the Spirit 
would not come (John 16 : 7) . How very accu- 
rate are the Biblical types ! They are indeed as 
accurate as mathematics. 

The oil used at the consecration of the priests 
is described in Exodus 30: 22-33. For the mak- 
ing of this typical compound God himself gave 
the prescription, and by Him its use was limited 
to the sacred purposes of the Tabernacle. He 
very solemnly forbade that any imitation of it 
be made, or that it be used upon any person 
" not a priest," * or for any purpose other than 
those prescribed by the Lord- It was to be es- 
teemed by the children of Israel as "an holy 
anointing oil " throughout their generations. The 
reason for these stringent prohibitions is not dif- 
ficult to discover. There can be no doubt that 
the oil was used as an emblem of the Holy Spirit, 
and as His grace and help can never be given to 
any person or scheme until such have become 
conformed to the will and purpose of God, it was 



1 The marginal rendering of " a stranger" in Ex. 30 : 33. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 159 

quite necessary that His type should be limited 
in its uses. Prayers for the Spirit's coming and 
co-operation are unavailing until conditions have 
been made such that His ministry and adminis- 
tration are possible. Consecration must precede 
anointing. 

III. The Associated Ministry of the 
Common Priests. 

(Ex.28: 1,41.) 

The common priests had no service or duties 
outside the sphere of Aaron's priestly ministry. 
In fact they were somewhat limited in this sphere, 
for they never went into the Holy of Holies to 
offer the blood before the throne of Jehovah. 
With this exception they probably shared with 
Aaron all the duties of the priestly office. Here 
again the typical teachings are unmistakable, and 
if carefully studied will greatly aid us in defin- 
ing the spiritual duties and ministries of the 
Great High Priest's " royal " associates in priestly 
service. In closing this part of our study we 
wish to notice some practical truths which are 
suggested by the associated ministry of the com- 
mon priests. 



160 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

1. In Aaron the Common Priests were God's 
Representatives to Men. While the administra- 
tion of the priestly office was always in Aaron's 
name, yet its actual ministry, with the exception 
already noticed, might be performed by the 
common priests. In this way they were God's 
representatives to men. The first object of priest- 
hood was to bring to men a message of con- 
demnation for transgression and guilt, and then 
present conditions upon which pardon and grace 
might be secured. Built upon this priestly con- 
ception of human need was the whole system 
of sacrificial expiation, a system serving in its 
time as a revealing shadow of the wonderful 
plan of redemption unfolded in the glorious 
Gospel of the Son of God. In the fullness of 
time, Christ came from heaven to declare the 
truth about sin, also to tell of God's love for the 
sinner and His purpose to redeem him. At Cal- 
vary He tarried long enough to emphasize His 
message, and to carry into effect God's marvel- 
ous plan for expiating human sin, and thus open 
a door of salvation for every one who will be- 
lieve. "God so loved the world, that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 161 

lasting life " (John 3:16). This was the earthly 
mission of our Lord. With Him into the true 
Holy of Holies, for the presentation of His blood, 
His priestly associates cannot go, but by His 
word of command they can and have gone as 
God's representatives into all the world to tell 
unto all men the wonderful story of redemption. 
They beseech men in Christ's stead to be recon- 
ciled to God. The great missionary enterprises 
of modern times are the results of the obedience 
of the Great High Priest's faithful and priestly 
associates. Their message to men is not a 
twentieth century message of sociology or moral 
reform, but a message of repentance toward 
God, and of a new birth through faith in His 
Son. This message, when received and obeyed 
from the heart, will produce reform of the high- 
est order. 

2. In Aaron the Common Priests were Man's 
Representatives to God. After representing God 
to the people, the high priest, and common priests 
with him, returned to the Holy Place to repre- 
sent the people before God. His work in their 
behalf was intercessional. At the golden altar 
the prayers of the people were offered, and 
mingling with the odors of burning incense, they 



162 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ascended into the presence of Jehovah. This 
was all typical of our Lord's priestly intercession 
in heaven. But is it true that believers are asso- 
ciated with the Redeemer in His intercessory 
work? Yes, it certainly is true. Just as the 
common priests offered intercessions in Aaron's 
name and were heard, so the priestly associates 
of the Great High Priest may intercede in His 
name and be sure that they have the ear of God. 
While Jesus was upon the earth He taught His 
disciples to pray the Father in His name. " What- 
soever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He 
will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked noth- 
ing in My name : ask, and ye shall receive, that 
your joy may be full " (John 16 : 23, 24) . " In His 
name ; " this means to be joined with Him in 
priestly intercession. This is a high honor and 
privilege to which we are called, uniting with 
the Son of God in prayer for India, China, Af- 
rica, America, the lost and needy of all classes 
and races, and our friends and dearly loved ones. 
We have only to think of the interests which 
weigh upon the Redeemer's heart and receive 
His intercessions, to recognize at once our duty 
and privilege in prayer. This lifts prayer to a 
higher plain — into a Divine fellowship. O Lord, 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 163 

teach us how to be Thy companions in prayer. 
Waken Thou us from our worldly slumber that 
we may watch with Thee through the hour of 
earth's night, giving ourselves as a " royal priest- 
hood " to that exalted ministry to which Thou 
art giving all the powers of Thy holy and loving 
mind and heart. 



SEVENTH LECTURE. 



THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS OF ISRAEL. 
/. The Sin-Offering. 
II. The Burnt-Offering. 
III. The Peace-Offering. 



THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS OF 
ISRAEL. 

" Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast 
Thou prepared me : in burnt-offerings and offerings for sin 
Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do 
Thy will, O God." — Heb. 10 : 5-7. 

After the priesthood had been instituted and 
its ministry defined, the Lord gave detailed in- 
structions concerning the offerings. Of these 
there were five: the Sin-offering, the Trespass- 
offering, the Burnt-offering, the Meat-offering, 
and the Peace-offering. These five were re- 
quired to foreshadow Calvary's one perfect Offer- 
ing, and each in the series presented some special 
aspect of Christ's sacrificial and redeeming work. 
We are to remember that there was absolutely 
no virtue in the blood of those animal sacrifices, 
" for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and 
of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4), 
but that they were simply types and shadows of 
Him who in &" prepared" body came into the 
world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- 



168 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

self. We might with much profit devote con- 
siderable study to each of these offerings, but, 
as our time is limited, we shall give especial at- 
tention to only the more important of them, 
namely, the sin-, burnt-, and peace-offerings, dis- 
missing the others with very brief consideration. 

I. The Sin-Offering. 

(Lev. 4.) 

The sin-offering was primal in its observance 1 
and significance. The removal of sin is man's 
first and greatest need ; until this is accomplished 
he can neither serve, enjoy, or worship God. In 
the sin-offering we see the sins of the offerer 
ceremonially put away; but back of the sin-offer- 
ing we see the Lamb of God laden with the sins 
of the world and actually bearing them away. 
The law of the sin-offering required — 

1. That the Animal be Ceremonially Perfect 
" Let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, 
a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord 
for a sin-offering " (Lev. 4:3). This was em- 
phatically insisted upon by many repetitions. 
As the object of the sacrifices was to foreshadow 



1 For the order of presenting the sacrifices see Ex. 29 ; 
Lev. 8 and 9. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 169 

the reconciliation between God and men which 
should later be accomplished by the Redeemer, 
only perfect offerings of any prescribed class 
could be used. When our Lord came to Calvary, 
He "offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. 
9: 14) ; "A Lamb without blemish" (1 Pet. 1: 
19) ; " Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from 
sinners " (Heb. 7 : 26) . Offerings, therefore, 
which were not ceremonially perfect could not 
have foreshadowed Him in all the perfections of 
His holiness. Fairbairn's rule for interpreting 
types applies here: "Nothing in itself evil can 
be a type of that which in itself is good." Jesus 
was able to accomplish the world's redemption 
by the sacrifice of Himself because His offering 
and offices were all acceptable unto God on the 
basis of absolute righteousness. 

2. The Offerer was Personally Identified with 
his Offering. " He shall lay his hand upon the 
head of the sin-offering " (Lev. 4 : 33) . This act 
of personal identification expressed two impor- 
tant truths: 

(1) The offerer's acceptance of his offering 
for the purpose for which it had been selected. 
This was a confession of need and a confession 
of faith. Nothing more or less on the part of 



170 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

the offerer was required to secure the remission 
of his sins. Nothing more or less is required 
in these times on the part of those who 
would secure the same all-important absolution. 
All who receive Jesus as Saviour, receive from 
Him power to become the sons of God. 

(2) The transference of the offerer's sins to 
the head of his offering. The offering was re- 
garded as so identified with the sinner as to 
have become laden with his guilt — it became sin 
on his behalf. This truth shadowed forth in the 
sin-offering, Saint Paul affirms to have become 
an actual accomplishment in our Lord. "Him 
who knew no sin He made to be sin on our 
behalf" (2 Cor. 5: 21, R. V.). He was not 
made sin by actual transgression, for He " did 
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, " 
but the Lord "laid on Him the iniquity of us 
all." He was made sin by imputation, God 
charging up all the iniquity of a sinful race to 
his Son. " The Lord hath laid on Him the iniq- 
uity of us ail " (Isa. 53 : 6) ; " His own self bear 
our sins in his own body on the tree " (1 Pet. 
2 : 24). The vicarious sin-bearing of Christ is a 
doctrine very objectional to some theologians. 
In rejecting this fundamental doctrine of the 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 171 

Scriptures, they boast that they are in agree- 
ment with the great thinkers. Well, we are 
willing to grant them this distinction. We are 
satisfied, yea, ambitious, to be numbered with 
the great believers. Such do not ask if any of 
the doctors and thinkers have believed, but 
simply enquire, "What saith the Word of the 
Lord?" The Bible declares, and places it be- 
yond successful denial, that Jesus was the anti- 
typical Sin-Offering upon whom God laid our 
sins. To believe this is to be saved ; to reject it 
is to be damned. It was at this point that Cain 
made his fatal mistake : he brought a meat-offer- 
ing instead of a sin-offering. 

3. After Receiving the Sins of the Offerer the 
Offering was Slain. "The bullock shall be 
killed before the Lord " (Lev. 4 : 15) . This exe- 
cution was intended to teach that the offering 
having become laden with the sins of the 
offerer, was dealt with as sin,— punished with 
the penalty due sin,— it was humanely killed. 
The Scriptures affirm that Christ died as a sin- 
offering, and for the sins of others. "Christ 
died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15: 3) ; "Who gave 
Himself for our sins" (Gal. 1: 4); "When He 
had by Himself purged our sins" (Heb. 1:3); 



172 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

"Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
many" (Heb. 9: 28); "His own self bear our 
sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 
2 : 24) ; " Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that He might bring us 
to God" (1 Pet. 3: 18); "He was wounded for 
our transgressions, He was bruised for our in- 
iquities: the chastisement of our peace was 
upon Him ; and with His stripes we are healed" 
(Isa. 53 : 5) ; " It pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; 
He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt 
make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see 
His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the 
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand " 
(Isa. 53: 10). How can anyone read these 
mighty affirmations of Scripture and deny the 
vicarious atonement? God has indeed charged 
up the iniquity of a world to His Son, and then 
discharged upon Him the awful wrath, the 
"stripes," "bruises," "wounds," and "death" 
which should have been measured out to the 
actual transgressors. Herein is proclaimed the 
wonderful message of God's unspeakable love, 
told to the sons of men as no silver-tongued 
seraph could ever proclaim it. Through the 
ages, this story has been subduing stubborn 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 173 

wills, changing the wickedest of lives, and win- 
ning the loving and self-sacrificing service of 
millions upon millions of disciples. 

4. The Disposition of the Sin-offering after it 
was Slain. There was some variation in the dis- 
position of the sin-offerings of a lower grade, 
but the regular sin-sacrifices for anointed 
priests and the congregation were disposed of 
in ways which were strikingly typical of im- 
portant truths. 

(1) The blood was taken into the holy place 
and sprinkled seven times before the Lord; 
some of it was used to anoint the horns of the 
altar of incense, and the remainder was poured 
at the base of the brazen altar. In the bearing 
of the blood into the holy place, we see Jesus 
who with " His own blood entered in once into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion for us" (Heb.9:12). 

(2) The fat was taken to be burned upon the 
altar of burnt-offering. Whatever was offered 
upon this altar was for God's acceptance. In 
this case it indicated that God approved and 
accepted the plan by which sin was being put 
away,— vicariously. It also indicated that al- 
though the offering was supposed to be laden 



174 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

with sin, God did not forget that it was without 
blemish; God's acceptance of the fat was His 
testimony to that fact. The heavenly Father 
did not forget that His dying Son was without 
sin, and his resurrection from the dead was 
God's testimony to that fact. The burning fat 
of the sin-offering, and the resurrection of 
Jesus on the morning of the third day, are 
correlatives. 

(3) The remainder of the body was removed 
from the camp and burned. It was in this way 
that the offering was made to express the awful- 
ness of sin ; it was because of its utter abhor- 
rence to Jehovah that it was banished from His 
face. When Jesus was upon the cross the 
Father turned His face from Him, an act which 
we should be at a loss to interpret, were it not 
that we know that He was there and dying as 
the antitypical Sin-Offering. Further reference 
is made to Christ's humiliation in the Hebrews, 
where we read, "The bodies of those beasts, 
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by 
the high priest for sin, are burned without the 
camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might 
sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered 
without the gate" (Heb. 13: 11, 12). Here is 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 175 

additional evidence for regarding Christ as the 
antitypical Sin-Offering. "Without the camp" 
and " without the gate " are correlative terms, 
and in both exclusions sin was made to appear 
exceeding sinful. 

" Ye who think of sin but lightly, 
Nor suppose the evil great, 
Here may view its nature rightly, 
Here its guilt may estimate." 

Note on the Trespass-Offering (Lev. 5: 
1-6 : 7) : The trespass-offering very closely re- 
sembled the sin-offering, and after what has 
been said in explanation of that, little further 
explanation is needed concerning this. The 
cases for which this offering was presented 
seem to have been as follows: first, uninten- 
tional trespass " in the holy things of the Lord ; " 
second, unintentional trespass against man. A 
distinguishing characteristic of this offering 
which was usually offered on account of in- 
juries done to others, is that it was always 
accompanied by restitution. "He shall make 
amends for the harm he hath done in the holy 
thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and 
give it unto the priest: and the priest shall 
make an atonement for him with the ram of the 



176 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

trespass-offering, and it shall be forgiven him" 
(Lev. 5 : 16) . The trespass-offering had in view 
the injury which sin does, rather than its guilt; 
the latter being the sin-offering aspect. Christ 
has atoned for the injury of sin as well as for its 
guilt. 

II. The Burnt-Offering. 

(Lev. 1: 3-17.) 

The burnt-offering followed and declared the 
efficiency of the sin-offering. The offerer's sins 
having been put away by the sin-sacrifice, he 
was then presented unto the Lord as most holy 
and acceptable ; this was the clear and forcible 
teaching of the burnt-offering. A reading of 
the first chapter of Leviticus will reveal that 
this offering was acceptable in three grades : it 
might be taken from the herd (vs. 3) , or from 
the flocks (vs. 10), or of the fowls (vs. 14). 
Such was a beneficent provision, enabling the 
poorest worshippers in Israel to approach God's 
altar and share in the blessed acceptance ex- 
pressed in the burnt-offering. It was an offering 
of the lowest grade, " a pair of turtle doves, and 
two young pigeons," that Joseph and Mary 
brought when they came to Jerusalem to pre- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 177 

sent the child Jesus according to the law (Luke 
2 : 22-24), an impressive affirmation of the truth 
written later by Saint Paul, " For ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He 
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, 
that ye through His poverty might be rich" 
(2 Cor. 8: 9). 

The important typical features of the burnt- 
offering are disclosed in the following directions 
concerning its presentation: "Let him offer a 
male without blemish : he shall offer it of his 
own voluntary will. . . . And he shall put his 
hand upon the head of the burnt-offering ; and 
it shall be accepted for him to make atonement 
for him. And he shall kill the bullock . . . and 
the priest shall burn it upon the altar, to be a 
burnt-sacrifice, an offering made with fire, of a 
sweet savor unto the Lord" (Lev. 1: 3-9). 
Please observe — 

1. It was a Sweet-Savor Offering. In this 
offering Jehovah took delight as in something 
highly satisfactory unto Himself. Not less than 
three times in the first chapter of Leviticus it is 
said to be " a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made 
by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord " (vs. 9, 
13, 17) . It is not difficult to discover the typical 



178 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

significance of this offering. On the cross, 
Christ was the Sin-Offering from which God 
turned away, suffering Him to die for sins ; and 
by "one sacrifice for sins forever," He made 
possible the release of all who are bound by sin, 
and the eternal redemption of those who are set 
apart to the efficacy of His perfect sin-offering. 
But after he had died for sins once, He was 
"declared to be the Son of God with power, 
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resur- 
rection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4), and it was 
after His resurrection from the dead that He 
made the offering to which reference is made in 
the fifth chapter of Ephesians : " Christ also hath 
loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offer- 
ing and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling 
savor" (Eph. 5:2). He was "once offered" 
to bear our sins, but " He ever liveth " to be 
our " continual burnt-offering " in which we are 
accepted before the Lord. It was His perfect 
submission as Sin-Offering which made Him 
acceptable as Burnt-Offering. The perfect sub- 
mission which kept him in the favor of God, and 
won for him the privilege of being man's sweet 
savor in heaven, was presaged in his pre-natal 
announcement : " Lo, I come ; in the volume of 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 179 

the book it is written of me: I delight to do 
Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my 
heart" (Ps. 40: 7, 8). And when He was ap- 
proaching the cross, He said, "Therefore doth 
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, 
that I might take it again. No man taketh it 
from me, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10 : 
17, 18). It was Christ's loyalty to the Father's 
will, and His affections for mankind which were 
so strong that nothing could turn Him from His 
purpose to come into the world in man's behalf, 
or arrest him in His onward journey toward the 
shameful tree upon which He would bear the 
sins of the world in His own body, which en- 
titled Him to become the fragrant Burnt-Offer- 
ing, at once pleasing to God and efficacious for 
men. He laid His life down as a sin-offering, He 
took it again that He might present it as a 
burnt-offering. 

2. The Offerer was Accepted before the Lord 
in the Perfections of the Burnt-Offering. "He 
shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt- 
offering; and it shall be accepted for him " (Lev. 
1:4). In just the same way that the sin-sacri- 
fice was made sin, by the imputation of the 
offerer's sin, so now the offerer was made ac- 



180 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

ceptable unto the Lord by the imputation of the 
offering's righteousness. This brings us back to 
that wonderful statement in Corinthians, " Him 
who knew no sin He made to be sin on our 
behalf ; that we might become the righteousness 
of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5: 21). Two astound- 
ing truths are here authoritatively affirmed by 
the writer: first, that Christ was made sin,— 
this we have already considered in connection 
with the sin-offering; second, that sinful men 
"might become the righteousness of God." This 
is an astounding statement indeed ! Can it ever 
be true that sinful men shall become the right- 
eousness of God? No, not actually; but they 
may by imputation. If it was possible for the 
Lord to take the iniquity of the transgressors 
and lay it upon His Son, and then number Him 
" with the transgressors," it may also be possi- 
ble for Him to take the righteousness of His Son 
and lay it upon the transgressors, and then 
number them among the righteous. This is 
just what the Lord has done. Men are made 
the righteousness of God in precisely the same 
way that Jesus was made sin,— by imputation. 
Does some objector say that this is purely legal ? 
Very well, and so it is. If men are ever to be 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 181 

given a place in heaven, it will surely be on a 
legal basis and in a legal righteousness,— it will 
be all of grace. Human righteousness at its 
very best, is as " filthy rags." Imagine anyone 
trying to enter heaven arrayed in such man- 
made finery! They would certainly be embar- 
rassed by discovering that it is not the " wedding 
garment " provided by the King. 

These truths were taught in typical shadows 
from the very beginning of man's career as a 
sinner. "Unto Adam and to his wife did the 
Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed 
them" (Gen. 3: 21). The animals gave their 
blood to expiate the sin, and their skins to cover 
the nakedness of the first guilty and exposed 
members of our race. Surely those sacrificial 
beasts were typical of the Lamb of God who 
should later interpose His blood and proffer His 
righteousness that sinners might be presented 
to God, "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
such thing," " accepted in the Beloved." O the 
blessed and unspeakably precious grace of God ! 
Will it stand the test of every legal objection 
hurled against it by the deceiver and great ad- 
versary of our souls ? It will indeed. 

Note on the Meat-Offering (Lev. 2) : We add 



182 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

just a few words here concerning the meat-offer- 
ing because it seems to have generally, if not 
always, followed the burnt-offering. The words 
"burnt-offering and its meat-offering" occur 
frequently, and would imply that the latter was 
supplemental to the former. The meat-offering 
was of three grades : first, fine flour upon which 
oil had been poured (Lev. 2:1); second, baked 
cakes or wafers anointed with oil (vs. 4-8) ; 
third, fresh ears of the first-fruits grain, parched, 
bruised, and oil put upon it (vs. 14-16) . Salt 
and frankincense were added to the meat-offer- 
ing ; salt because it represented " the covenant 
of God" (vs. 13), and frankincense because of 
its sweet savor. Two articles of fermentation 
were strictly forbidden, — leaven and honey. 
" No meat-offering which ye shall bring unto the 
Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall 
burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering 
of the Lord made by fire (Lev. 2 : 11). The rea- 
son for this prohibition is obvious : Leaven con- 
tains a principle of corruption, and for this 
reason it is invariably used in the Scriptures as 
an emblem of evil ; there is no exception to this, 
as sound exegesis will demonstrate ; and honey, 
sweet as it is, quickly sours and comes to fer- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 183 

mentation and corruption. By the rigid exclu- 
sion of these articles from the meat-offering, the 
Hebrews were taught that only what is pure 
and holy may be presented to the Lord, and the 
meat-offering was preserved, according to Fair- 
bairn's rule, as " a type of that which in itself is 
good." 

The meat-offering was divided, a part going to 
God upon the brazen altar, and the remainder 
given to the priests for food. 1 Thus it perfectly 
represented Christ who offered Himself to God, 
and is the Father's continual delight, but who 
also gave Himself to His redeemed people as the 
"living bread" for their continual refreshing. 
Evermore let us eat of this bread, whereof if a 
man eat he shall never die. 

III. The Peace-Offering. 

(Lev. 3; 7: 11-21.) 

The peace-offering was a festive oblation,— 
the grateful and joyful climax to the offerings 
which had preceded it. In this offering we be- 
hold the tribes of Israel celebrating the fellow, 
ship and peace with God into which they had 



Hence its name, meat-, food-, meal-, or bread-offering. 



184 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

been brought by the sin- and burnt-offerings. 
Remembering that all of Israel's sacrificial cere- 
monies were only "shadows of good things to 
come," we are able to look beyond the shadows 
and see Jesus bringing believers into the fellow- 
ship which His perfect sacrifice has secured for 
them. 

1. The Name of this Offering is Suggestive — 
"Peace-Offerings. " 1 Note that the plural form is 
used. It was peace in its fulness of measure, 
and in its varied forms,— peace with God, peace 
with men, peace in the conscience, — blessed 
foretaste of the peace which Christ has made 
for us " through the blood of His cross." " He 
is our peace, who hath made both one" (Eph. 
2 : 14) ; " Therefore being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ" (Rom. 5: 1). These excerptions from 
the Scriptures indicate that peace has been se- 
cured in behalf of all men by what Jesus accom- 
plished in His atonement, but that it becomes 
an individual inheritance by a personal act of 
faith. Whoever tries to secure it as the reward 
of personal merit will fail. The clearer the 



See Lev. 3 : 1, American Revision. 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 185 

faith, the fuller the apprehension of Christ's 
atoning work, and the fuller the apprehension of 
Christ's atoning work, the fuller and more abid- 
ing is the blessed peace of God. Our apprehen- 
sion does not affect the basis upon which our 
peace rests, but it does limit the measure of 
peace which we consciously enjoy. 

2. The Peace-Offering was a Joint Feast in 
which God, the Priests, and the Offerer Partici- 
pated. In this respect it differed from all the 
other animal sacrifices. In the requirement that 
it be an unblemished offering, in the laying of 
the offerer's hand upon its head, and in the 
killing and the sprinkling of the blood, it differed 
very little from the other animal sacrifices; in 
the disposition of its body, however, it differed 
most significantly,— it was essentially a com- 
munion feast provided at the expense of the un- 
blemished offering. The various portions of 
the feast were distributed by divine appoint- 
ment. 

(1) To the Lord was given the blood, which 
was sprinkled upon the altar, also the fat that 
was upon the inwards, the two kidneys, and the 
fat upon them, and the caul above the liver; 
all was laid upon the altar, and Aaron's sons 



186 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

burnt it upon the burnt-sacrifice which was upon 
the wood that was on the fire. The Lord's 
portion included the blood,— the life was in the 
blood,— and the fat,— the inward and secret 
preciousness of the offering ; —these He accepted 
as a sweet savor and took pleasure in them. 
Who but our adorable Redeemer could present 
His whole life with all its inmost thoughts and 
motives as a pleasing sacrifice unto God ? " Be- 
hold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts," 
but only in Thy well beloved Son hast Thou 
found it. In the peace-offering we have God 
taking an inside inventory of His Son and ac- 
cepting His findings as an acceptable offering in 
our behalf. Our peace rests upon what God 
sees in Jesus and not upon what He sees in us. 
In other words, our peace is made secure in 
Christ's perfect atonement, and not in our perfect 
characters. Is it not a great delight for us to 
know that in the deepest and most hidden mo- 
tives and virtues of His life and death, our 
blessed Saviour revealed to His Father inward 
excellencies upon which Jehovah's pleasure and 
satisfaction feeds with an eternal delight which 
is ail His own ? 
(2) To the priests the breast and right shoul- 



OR, REDEMPTION IN DRAMA 187 

der were given. By special instructions, the 
breast was given to Aaron and his sons, and the 
shoulder went to the priest who sprinkled the 
blood of the peace-offering. That this officiating 
priest was typical of Christ there can be no 
doubt, and his association with his fellow priests 
in the feast foreshadowed our Lord's intimate 
fellowship with us in our feast of peace. Jesus 
views His finished work with transcendent de- 
light. Through all the centuries since His pas- 
sion He has been seeing of the travail of His soul 
and has been satisfied,— a compensating feast 
all His own. 

(3) To the offerer was given all that remained 
of the flesh of his offering (Lev. 7: 15). The 
joyous festival of the peace-offering extended to 
the outermost limits of the redemption secured 
by the sin- and burnt-offerings. All who have 
been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ 
have a sweet peace, " the gift of God's love." 

3. Only those who were Cleansed might Par- 
take of the Peace-Offering. "The soul that 
eateth of the peace-offering . . . having his un- 
cleanness upon him, . . . shall be cut off from 
his people" (Lev. 7: 20). God declares that 
there is no peace to the wicked. In vain do they 



188 TABERNACLE SHADOWS 

go to the pleasures of the world which at best 
can only entertain, and for a little while cause 
the troubled soul to forget its burden of unrest. 
Like an opiate, such things deaden men's spirit- 
ual sensibilities for the passing hour, only to 
leave their souls overwhelmed with an awful 
gloom more foreboding and impenetrable. " The 
peace of God which passeth all understanding " 
is the heritage of only those who have made 
Jesus their Saviour. That a full measure of this 
heavenly gift may be enjoyed by all to whom 
these messages come is our prayer, and we use 
to express our heart's desire, the priestly prayer 
and benediction which Aaron pronounced upon 
all the people when he came down from offering 
the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the 
peace-offering: — "The Lord bless thee, and 
keep thee; the Lord make His face to 
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
thee; the Lord lift up His countenance 
upon thee, and give thee peace." 



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